Dont leave me
by akaimegane
Summary: The world was so flat until they arrived and interrupted her normal flow of life, but when everything you know becomes uncertain, and new worlds suddenly collide, how does one person deal with everything on their own? All while falling in love with someone who she could never truly belong to? Rated M for eventual sexual context, language and adult situations.
1. Chapter 1

Hello everyone! this is the first fanfic ive ever done! I really support this couple, and ive always loved the manga. i hope everyone enjoys this a bunch!

i dont own any of these characters, kishimoto does

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She rolled over in her bed just as sunlight began to peek its nosy head into her room, trying to steal her away from the world she had artificially created in her mind for the night. "Mmhhh.. " she grumbled, not wanting to give in to consciousness. However, someone had other plans, as her alarm clock suddenly screeched, causing her to roll off the bed and hit the floor with a load thud! The sound reverberated through the empty hollow of a husk she called home, and apparently it was also heard below as the neighbors began banging, and yelling something about how 'some people are actually trying to sleep.' "Sorry!" she whispered sheepishly while rubbing her sore head, feeling silly for whispering at all.

Today seemed like it was going to be long, well, compared to her other days anyways.

It had taken her an hour and a half to get ready and to leave her apartment building. She was dragging her feet all the way, and leaving no earth unscaved.

Taking a deep breath to help relax herself and taking in the barely there rays from the harmful sun seemed like it would unravel her, but nothing changed, because nothing ever changed. Things had remained the same, at a standstill, and that frustrated her more than anything.

She had been living on her own since the tender age of 17, in a big city that swallowed the weak up, chewed to drain their flavor, and spit them out it they were done. Only the strong could ride the waves of this ocean without drowning. She felt like she was barely a float, but not quiet neck deep yet either.

Her eyes bore holes into her daily routine. Nothing changed; she didn't need to focus as she wallowed through the city. Every curve, every rough patch, every busy street remained the same, everything was boringly predictable, everything seemed so set in stone.

It wasn't long before she arrived at the train station, her last stop before she reached her final destination, a large hospital. She had just started her internship as a surgeon for Konoha hospital, the largest hospital in Konoha. It was always super busy; there were always men and women with their children in and out. She should have felt honored to work there, and under such a prestigious surgeon, but she didn't. She felt stressed and empty, she felt as hollow as her empty home, surely enough they were twins right?

She worked under the chief surgeon named Tsunade, who was also the Hokage of the city, she was a woman with a small waist line and a very animated bust, her hair was long, blond, and shiny, the ideal of perfection. The woman was loud, outrageous, had a short fuse, and instead of spending time getting lost in the rain she gambled, and drank. She looked so perfect to say that she would go on drinking binges, she didn't have a single wrinkle either. Jealousy was what could usually be described as a feeling one would get when they looked at her.

Everything seemed to be in fisheye view, the world wasn't really as round as everyone thought, it was flat, and depthless. Dog eat dog world.

She heard her destination being called out and boarded the train, everyone was in their usual spot, and even she slugged her way to what was normal. She'd go on to wonder if everyone else felt as unmoved as her, if they all felt the lack of progression, the vast emptiness she felt?

She heard a 'bing', indicating that the doors were closing and that her predetermined journey was about to begin, again. Suddenly a hand jammed into the door causing people to gasp as the doors yanked back open. She turned her head sharply and was instantly drawn from her prison like mind. Someone was attempting to break this stagnate normalcy.

"See teme! I told you we would board!" in jumped a blond boy, the light radiating from him was enough to make her wince and squint to get a closer look. "Shut up dobe, if we had left earlier like I said we wouldn't have had to of run," came another voice, a voice of darkness and utter coldness. In stepped a raven boy, his hair and eyes were darker than black and held no real life in them. They both were strangely beautiful, and seemed to be extreme opposites, yet they were friends, and they were smiling and joking together. '_Their gay'_ she thought instantly while chuckling to herself.

The doors finally closed and the train began moving.

She couldn't take her eyes off of them, no matter how hard she pulled her head, it held its ground and stayed in place. She was embarrassed to say at least. Others seemed to have noticed their difference too, all sorts of people were chatting that usually weren't, little school girls were giggling, and that could only mean one thing. One was even brave enough (or pushed out of the group until further notice) to actually give the blonde one 'dobe' a letter. She giggled and ran back into her 'now accepting memberships once more' group. The blond merely made an embarrassed face, and when he turned away he looked disgusted. "Robbing the cradle now dobe?" the raven boy joked and shoved the radiant one a little. "It's addressed to us both teme, or should I say partner in crime?!" he joked. They opened the letter and after reading a few lines both agreed it was probably best to get away from the little girls. They're faces were red with embarrassment, or humiliation,. Whichever came first.

Suddenly they strode towards her. Her heart pounded loud enough for everyone to hear, it quickly betrayed her. _Damn? Really?_ They weren't that beautiful,... right? Her head suddenly felt the need to cooperate as it turned straight, but only straight enough to where she could watch them from her peripherals. They kept approaching ever so slowly, and when one passed in front of her she held her breath. It was the radiant one, no need to defile him with her breathing right? As soon as the raven boy passed in front of her the train hitched.

All lights went out as he stumbled onto her, slamming his rock hard (or pointy, she couldn't tell) shoulder right into her nose. The accident was massive, and would need to be reported on the news later. The collision left her feeling dizzy as he dragged her body down with him, quite a few people fell.

She opened her eyes to see him kneeling half way on top of her, quickly he made his way off, something hot instantly ran down her face. She looked up as she heard squawking. "Way to go teme!" the blond punched the other. She touched the liquid and realized that it was blood, and it was everywhere. "Huh?!" she felt very confused, the collision wasn't that massive. Right?

His claw reached down and yanked her up... his warm, ever-not-so-claw-like claw. "here." the blonde one offered. He was holding out a rag, where the hell he got it from was a mystery to her, but she took it nevertheless, and stopped the flow of blood. "Thanks," she mumbled, "yo miss, you sure have one weird ass hair color!" the blond one smiled at her. She blushed a little realizing that he was talking about her pastel pink hair, it was weird, she'd give him that. "Hey," the blond nudged the raven, "apologize teme," he whispered.

"hn," was the noise he settled for as he looked away.

"Yea, sorry for that," the blond extended his hand. "He's dickless and hasn't hit puberty yet, so he's never sure how to talk to girls." he laughed to himself and so did she. The raven wasn't pleased, wasn't pleased at all. "I'm Naruto, and this is..." "It's Sasuke," the raven interjected, finally projecting his voice to her. He certainly _had _already hit puberty.

"I'm Sakura" she smiled.

"ohhhh i get it! It matches the hair color!" Naruto pointed out. Sakura was sure she wasn't named Sakura because of her hair color; her mother merely liked the name. She giggled, shrugging his effort off. Naruto had jokes. The little bastard.

She spoke and giggled with the two boys all the ways until normalcy happened. Her hour long ride had turned into a time of joy, and something that wasn't predestined. It was different, and in short, she was happy.

But like all days and good times, there was an end to it as the train slowly gave way to screeching brakes.

"Well," Naruto looked at Sakura. "It's been hella fun talking with you, but this is me and teme's stop. Hope to see you again." he insisted as the door opened and both boys made their exit. She simply smiled, and waved and went about her normal life.

She looked out the window to see Naruto walking with his hands behind his head. Then her heart beat so loud she could have sworn everyone could hear it, again. Sasuke, the raven boy was semi turned and staring into her window, at her face. Her eyes gapped at him and suddenly there was an unbroken link between they're eyes that only the train severed when it began to move.

_What was that about?! _She pondered to herself,

Surely his beautiful eyes were looking elsewhere, or maybe they were staring into her soul, judging its character. It didn't matter, she told herself, because after they left she would simply fall back into everyday routine.

Work had been slow, apparently no one felt the need to be dying or injured and she wasn't sure if she liked that or not. Her mentor invited her into her office, some talk about starting new clinical trials and fixing the names on the surgical board. She got that privilege because she was the youngest, and because she was the new-bee to the hive.

The smell of cheap alcohol was already present on her mentors breath, and the color that stained her cheeks told Sakura that it was still going to be a long day, and surely enough, just as she guessed, her boss called on her every 5 seconds to dust shadows. She was going to lose some weight running around today.

Lunch eventually showed its face, and she rested with her best friend, a woman who was no taller than Sakura but had a big personality and attitude. Ino.

She and Ino sat in one of the high up hallways that overlooked the city; it was used to house old stale gurneys so no one ever knew where they ate for lunch.

"Forehead, why do you eat the same thing every day?" Ino complained about Sakura's lunch every day. Sakura looked into her little lunch bento box. It provided nutrition, wasn't that a simple answer?

"It's easy to make." Sakura shrugged her shoulder.

As time began to leave them Sakura's mind began to wonder, leaving her friend's conversation behind. She was barely making out what Ino's blabber was about.

"...he was so cute, and he took me to dinner and paid for everything, forehead I think he's the one!" her friend was clenching something to her chest with dreamy, wanting eyes. What the hell was she talking about again? Apparently she missed more than she thought. "Hey forehead! Did you hear anything I just said?" Ino looked slightly furious.

Sakura looked at her, "huh?"

"FOREHEAD!" she nudged her. "I was telling you about Shikamaru, my date.. Remember?!" she bobbed her head slightly down, trying to muse an answer out of Sakura. "Oh.. Yea.. "Sakura giggled. "How did that go by the way?" "Gosh you're so hopeless!" Ino folded her arms, trying her best to make a cute pouting face.. it was impossible, nothing was ever cute for Ino.

"Speaking of boys, when are you going to start dating?!" she eyed Sakura, damn her constant need for information. During the years she had known Ino (her whole life... -_-) the girl was known for several things, getting what she wanted, being fashionable and flirty, gossip, and prying until she got answers. Damn her.

"Hmmmmm" Sakura smiled and rocked back, holding onto her knees. "I dunno," she smiled again. Ino glared at her, she was probably trying to kill her with those eyes. Sakura was acting like a teenager in love... "Maybe if a prince swept me up... we would frolic into the distan..." "Okay spill! Who are you crushing on!" ion grabbed her shoulders.. This information was viable god damnit! "No one! No one!" she swatted at Ino's hands, she just could help to smile at how beautiful those boys had been.

"It's Neji, from the office huh?! He's already taken!" she shook Sakura's hands! "Property closed silly girl!" Ino chuckled in triumph, tossing Sakura's hands aside. Sakura merely shook her head. "Kiba, the pet ward dude!" she jumped up, biting her bottom lip with wide eyes! Sakura shook her head again. " good, he probably has fleas anyways…..YOU CANT HAVE SHIKAMARU!" she pointed at Sakura and was smiling hard! "I don't want him either!" Sakura pointed back. People were starting to figure out where their secret hiding place for lunch was.

"ROCK LEEEEEEEEEEEEE~! FRRRRROMMM ACCOUNTING!" she jumped up fully. Mouth open wide and hands high to the sky! "Quit auctioning boys off!" Sakura stood too; she was feeling Ino's energy.

"Hey goofballs!" another woman walked up. "Oh no, they found us!" Ino hissed. The woman made a face, "with the way you're screaming boys names anyone would. Plus everyone has a good view of you two from over there." the woman pointed with a smirk on her face. Both Ino and Sakura looked. "oh," they said in unison. Not knowing anyone could see them. "Sakura, our secret love affair is over.. I don't want to get names." Ino said, while waving her arms about, childishly. "Oh shut up pig! You already have names." Sakura nudged her.

The day eventually finished. Sakura felt like she was going home with more homework than she planned on...

The world was unusually darker than what it had been on her way home. The streets were cold and there wasn't a single car going anywhere. "Isn't this rush hour?" she thought looking at her clock. It read 4 in the morning. She made a face. "Well that's wrong," she said while stopping to adjust her watch. Suddenly rustling was heard.

She turned sharply to see four people standing behind her. They were laughing and staring holes into her petite form. "What are you doing out her by yer self miss? aint it a bit late" one spat while closing the distance between them . '_Oh god' _Sakura thought. "Yea!" another spoke. "aint you a bit cold?" he stepped up on the other side of her "I could help warm ya up." He gave a half tooth grin, making Sakura cringe. She stepped backwards as to escape, and turned to run.

Just then her small wedge caught a pot hole and she tripped, all of the content from her purse spilling and allowing them to catch up. "what's wrong miss? We just wanna play a little game.." one grabbed her. "NO!" she screamed scratching his face. "woooo, feisty.. i like little cats.." he grabbed her up by her legs and hair.. She was screaming to the top of her lungs... where the hell was everyone else?! This was defiantly not a part of her daily routine!

He dragged her to somewhere dark against her will. "p...lea...se d. . d...o th...is..." she whimpered. "The bitch doesn't even have money in her wallet," one said while throwing Sakura's wallet at her face. "That's alright, I'll get the right amount from her by this." his hands snatched at her blouse, "HELPPPPPPP!" she screamed, smacking the man in the face and kicking him.

Her shirt was on the floor tone to pieces, and her skirt was torn not too long after. "Get off of me!" she pushed him as he was trying to kiss her. He had already left several nasty reminding hickeys and bruises on her..

Sakura punched his face, nothing happened. She was already nearly naked and was plenty afraid and embarrassed. He shifted his weigh so she sat more perfectly between the wall and him. Everything seemed so fucking dark and surreal, was this how it was all going to happen? What had happened to her ever-so-flat world?

He shifted again, as he did so her foot caught enough leverage to come up between his legs. She rammed her knee into his groin as hard as she possible could, she was a really weak girl, but giving up was never an option.

He lost his grip on her causing her to collide hard with the floor, she gathered herself and tried to stand quickly but was stomped on by one of the four.. it was pain like no other as her body slammed harshly into the ground, without an effort, she let out a wicked loud scream as her bone gave way to his foot. It wasn't broken, just seriously in pain and surely it would bruise.

"You bitch!" he quickly regained strength and slapped her hard across the face, sending her already damaged body farther across the cold ass floor. Her blood splatted against the floor, permanently staining it. That stain later would become a painful reminder to her of the day.

the hit made her feel light headed and extremely dizzy. She internally cringed and dug her nails into the floor as he grabbed her leg and tried to pull her up again.

Fight back.

Fight back or die.

Suddenly something black flashed across all of them. It was quick and agile, knocking down one of them. Sakura looked up, not able to get a good look as to what was happening around her.. The man stood up. "What the fuck was that?!" he looked panicked.

"Who the fuck are you!" someone yelled. Sakura leveled her head up, giving herself a good look; it was the same raven head boy that she talked with on the train. "Sakura!" he yelled out, charging forward to her rescue.

One swung at him, he seemed to have dodged it effortlessly. Then drilled his fist into the man's stomach causing him to double over, Sasuke took the opportunity to knocked him in his spine with his bird like elbow. The man collapsed and groaned all at the same time. "Get him!" he screamed and grabbed Sakura's hair.. She winced and yelled out, causing the raven to move faster.

Someone's fist made contact with his slender pale face, terror bubbled in her stomach as he fell flat to the floor and received a kick by two to the ribs, what if they hurt him? He barely knew her and he was doing his best to fight four people off, all for her?

Sasuke was significantly smaller than the other boys, his lip looked busted and his nose was spewing hot red blood.

The grip on her hair loosened as the leader saw this fight as a losing battle and ran. The others all collided with the ground and didn't get back up.

Quickly he rushed to her side. "Sakura?" he looked at her. "It is you!" Sasuke's eyes rapidly moved over a frame, checking for real damage.

For a slight moment there was red… red in his eyes that was spinning. She shook her head and stared into suddenly charcoal black eyes.

Tears slid down her face in that very moment, it was over, yet she still felt violated, and in short, she was terrified. "The...they were goin.. goin to.." clenching at herself as if it would make everything better. It didn't help that there wasn't anything to cover up her nearly naked form, she felt shame casting down on her.

"It's alright." he spoke, his voice was more gentle than it had been on the train. " I won't let them hurt you," he slipped out of his shirt and pulled it over her head. "Here," he held the shirt out to her. "It's not much, but it's better than being naked." She looked up at him, why was he still trying to help her out? Random acts of kindness? When she didn't was accept the shirt he pulled it over her head, not leaving her with much of an option. It was a solid black long sleeve shirt with a turtle neck and open buttons at the top, and so very warm and comfortable.

"i.. i have to ge..." she resented the stutter in her voice but she couldn't process the right words she needed to communicate. "I'll take you home.. We can ride the train together." he gathered her in his arm.. Sakura looked up at him and then pointed to her scattered items from her purse on the floor. He quickly gathered them as well and placed the purse on her stomach.

She gripped his neck, and allowed him to carry her the whole way to the train station, which wasn't as far as it seemed.

Sasuke smelt of emptiness, and coal. His skin glistened with sweat and a little blood, it was as cold as the winter night. How was he such a suitable person?

Sakura gave into her thoughts.

The ride on the train seemed so much longer than the one in the morning. He continued to hold her in his arms, shielding people's questioning looks away from her. She had whimpered the whole way there, and even now she couldn't seem to pull herself together. Sasuke began to rub her back.. Pacifying her.

It wasn't long before the train stopped, Sakura and Sasuke made their way to her small cluttered apartment , which was deep in the heart of Konoha, everywhere was super close and cluttered, a cheaper place for single people.

He walked her all the ways to her door, holding onto her stumbling form. It was obvious that she was damaged and would need to take a day or so to be examined and make any necessary repairs.

He watched her back as she waltz to her door; he didn't say anything to her, even though he wanted to. Instead he stood in utter silence, and waited for an indication that she could now manage herself.

They stopped in front of her door. "Is this it?" he looked at her, then to the outside of her place, there was a small wilting plant under her window seal. She merely nodded her head, currently not being able to utter 'yes'.

"Thank you, for everything." she spoke quietly and slowly unlocked the door. Sasuke peered inside out of pure curiosity; it was tidy and completely dark and cold. Defiantly a place for a single person. "Please wait." Sakura mumbled as she stepped inside and closed the door behind her. _Wait? For what?_

He tried looking through the door hole, then the cracked window blinds. Sakura was changing out of his shirt and into some of her own clothing, pants and all. Sasuke watched her do so, she seemed so frail and broken, surely she too smelt of emptiness.

After a minute or so the door clicked, indicating that she had finished. The black raven shirt was folded with such neatness. "Thank you for everything…" she uttered again in a low tone, never making eye contact with his empty eyes.

He glanced more into her now lit apartment, it suited her he figured, not being really able to make such an accusation of her yet.

"Are you okay?" he began questioning her wellbeing before he even thought of taking his shirt. . She touched her arm and held her head down. What could he have expected from her? A smile?

He searched her pale face, nothing of what happened to her was fair, why did people like her have to experience things like that?

Sakura glanced up into Sasuke's eyes, and for a moment they just stayed there, communicating everything that needed to be said without saying anything at all.

Sasuke eventually accepted the shirt, and she slowly stepped behind the door, closing it in the process.. closing him out in the process.

There was no goodbye, or goodnight. Just simple understanding.

He stood there, feeling strangely rejected before he decided to turn and leave. He had only met her this morning after all, such a weird turn of events.

Sakura crawled into her cold bed sheets and cried herself to sleep.

The next couple of days went by just as easy as they came, Sakura kept to herself for the first few of them, but then told Ino everything and cried like a baby in her comfort. Then the world went back to being predictable, everything was back in its rightful place, everyone said the same things, did the same things, and looked the same way. The world was suddenly very flat again.

Sakura heard the buzzing of her alarm clock go off, signaling that her day was about to begin again. She repeated the same process she had settled herself in over the last couple of years.

Friday eventually rolled around and showed its bald face, the week went by effortlessly, and that only meant that the weekend would probably have the same equivalent feeling as an hour.

Sakura stepped into the crowded train station and sighed. Where the hell were all of these people coming from? People were shoving and rushing to the front of the line when the train rolled around the corner.. Sakura glanced at it, then realized that she needed to board it. "Excuse me!" she tried pushing through the stagnant group of people, the doors to the train were already closing.. "no no no no!" she yelled out trying to get on.. "waiit!" she yelled as the doors shut her out and the train began to move.. Sakura watched the train leave her behind, she clenched her ticket in her hand. Today was about to get just a little bit longer.

"Now what?" she spoke softly to herself while crossing her arms and making a pouty face. "I guess I should call in and let them know I'll be late." she spoke while fumbling for her cell phone. It had received several scratches from that incident, and the screen was cracked in the corner, ruining her once perfectly kept phone.

Sakura looked up while holding the phone to her ear.. "hullo," a voice slurred. Her boss was already drunk off her ass. Thank goodness.

"Its Haruno Sakura, I missed the train this morning." she spoke into the mouth piece.. No reply came, then suddenly. "What's your point?" the voice giggled. "that means I'll be late..." she made a wishful face, not wanting to get in trouble.. "hck, girl... just come in when your good and fuckin ready.. see ya baby.." the woman clicked, disconnecting the call. She smiled to herself; her boss was rather easy to deal with after she had a few drinks in her system. Sakura liked that.

It wasn't long before the next train came, Sakura made sure she boarded this one after exchanging her ticket. She didn't want to go to work at all, not after her boss said she could come in when she was good and ready, but she might as well get the day over with.

she glanced around while holding onto the posts. The train was packed from people back to back, someone important must have died?

The train passed over all of Konoha, which was starting to be covered by white snow. The city looked beautiful during the winter; there were so many available features and things to do during the winter than there was in any other season, since Konoha didn't really have a beach. People would start to hang lights and in the center of the city there would be a big Christmas tree erected, and shop keepers would decorate their shops and change the fragrant in the air... she loved everything about it. Suddenly someone grabbed her shoulder, Sakura froze up.

"oi! Sakura!" a semi familiar voice rang.. She turned to see Naruto and the raven boy standing behind her. She decided to grace them with a smile. "Naruto, Sasuke, it's been a while.." she extended her hand.. Naruto avoided her hand a gripped her shoulders, pulling her into a hug. The raven just watched. "I heard what happened to you! If I was there I would have killed them!" Sakura's eyes were wide, but eventually she hugged him back. Naruto was a good person, she figured.

She glanced at the raven, his mind must have been elsewhere. He looked very cold and detached, always so aloof from everyone else. She watched the lights play tricks on his figure and decided he was the more beautiful of the two. Naruto was blabbering about something while shaking her shoulders, it was nearly impossible to catch on. Sakura smiled at him, she hadn't seen both of them together since the first time she met them, and she hadn't seen the raven boy since earlier on in the week. Looking at him was awkward now, after he saw her nearly naked and everything. Sasuke never glanced at her, he didn't say words either, something was on his mind. Naruto realized that Sakura was staring at Sasuke and was disregarding his comments. He glanced at Sasuke, then back to Sakura.. "ne, Sakura… earth to Sakura." He waved his hand in her face, she suddenly focused on him and laughed. "sorry.." she giggled. "I wanted to know if you wanted to hang out with me and teme at our favorite ramen place?" Naruto smiled at her. '_your _favorite ramen place' she heard Sasuke comment. Naruto clasped his hands together. "please! I'll pay! Or teme, whichever comes first!" he grabbed her hands and clenched them to his face.

Sakura looked up smiling at him, he radiated back, Sasuke looked too, curious as to what her answer would be. . "I'll go with you guys.." "yatta!" Naruto jumped up. She smiled and laughed, the world was losing its shape again.

The train ride was short and sweet.. and before she knew it Sasuke and Naruto were getting off. Naruto hugged her goodbye, promising that those 'bastards' wouldn't hurt her again. She accepted the promise. Sasuke merely glanced at her, something was still bothering him. He went to exit but was stopped by Sakura's delicate fingers. "wait…" she held onto him. "Thank you for everything again, please… don't worry about me." She smiled at him, his ever-so-empty eyes strained in confusion, then he quickly exited the train.

Sakura stood there.. hoping he wouldn't worry too much..

The door sounded as it was getting ready to close, then sudden beeping was heard. Sakura looked over to where the sound was coming from and was suddenly grabbed by Sasuke, he had interrupted the closing door. He pulled her into a forehead kiss, then let her go.

"I won't let anyone hurt you again" he promised, looking her dead in the eyes.

And then he left, leaving her mind scattered.

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i hope everyone liked it! 3


	2. from the top of the world

Sakura sighed as she looked into the mirror.. her hair was known for being an asshole most of the time, it wouldn't curl or wave, and if she attempted to rid herself of the ever-not-so-normal-pink color, it would simply fade back within a few weeks. Her reflection in the mirror was a semi tired one,… and a slightly aggravated one too, her body was pale and skinny. Most of the time she felt and looked gray, her colors had all been washed away, but now there was flesh showing through, bringing life to this dead corpse. She had promised Naruto that she would go with him and Sasuke to their favorite ramen place, and yet she was getting dressed for a black tie event…

Sakura checked out her own frame in the mirror, her skin tight black dress probably wasn't the most appropriate for the evening, it clung to every curve, enhancing nothing. '_But it's so nice, and I never get to wear it -_-'she_ pushed at her boobs, trying to make them appear bigger before she gave up,there wasn't any reason to be fancy. There never was.

Sighing, she waddled over to her closet, for the millionth time already. Scanning the contents with her hawk like eyes, glancing in the mirror again, maybe it was best if she just went naked, since nothing else was working. Naked with shoes of course… the ground was nasty. Encouraging laughter from herself, then looked at herself naked in the mirror again, she glanced her body over before slumping down. Something was missing from her, but what?... Maybe naked wasn't the best idea.

Suddenly the doorbell reverberated throughout the tiny apartment… Sakura jumped out of fear, slipping on the floor and pulling down several articles of clothing as she did so. "It's them!" she clutched at herself and began scrounging around to find anything to wear. _Damn their perfect timing!_

All of her clothes were running from her, apparently none of the clothing wanted to go on a date with her and the boys. Suddenly a sundress from her dirty laundry pile began to shine, drawing her attention to it.. Sakura yanked at it as it whispered a sweet alluring 'wear me…. Weeeeeeeeeearrr meee~. Giving in to temptation, she slipped it on and flew down the hall to the front door and nearly snatched the door off the hinges. "IM READY!" she proclaimed loudly! Squeezing her eyes tight shut.

When no response came she looked out the door.

The paper boy quivered, his knees touching in the middle.. "I just needed to drop this off." He shook a little. Sakura blinked… feeling really stupid. "Here," she reached her hand out for it, but he placed it on the floor out of fear and made a quick escape, bumping into Naruto and Sasuke on his way out. They both turned to the boy, 'what the fuck?' she heard Naruto mutter.

The radiant one smiled upon seeing her. His smile was blinding and the closer he got the brighter the world seemed. "Sakura!" Naruto reached out instinctively and pulled her into a tight nearly-break-my-ribs hug. "na..ruto!" she greeted back, not really able to breath anymore. He was so vibrant and lively in a grey blue shirt with red words saying 'dattebayo' at the bottom and orange faded jeans that were slightly rolled up at the bottom. He wore brown sandals that showed his toes, a blue crystal like necklace with a small leather watch and a little bracelet. His colors were off, but he defiantly made it look good. Not wasting any time, Naruto pulled her out and examined her.. "You look cute Sakura, even though only one side of your hair is curled." he ran his fingers through her soft locks, reminding her that she currently was still a mess.

"Hey there Sasuke!" She peaked around Naruto to see Sasuke looking elsewhere; he acted like the third wheel to a date, which defiantly was _not_ the case. His outfit consisted of a dark blue v-neck long sleeve t-shirt that had a small red and white fan on the bottom, the sleeves were rolled up onto his forearms. His pants were dark grey and also rolled up at the bottom, there was a small black belt hanging and he wore black shoes. Of course they both looked extremely opposite, and always extremely handsome. She melted a little on the inside. Sinking into her stomach hurt.

Sasuke shouldered her greeting off, '_that's just how he is' _she told herself. "please, come inside.. I'm not quite finished yet." She moved to the side, allowing them access into her home, she quickly hurried to her room.

Sakura closed the door behind her quickly and slid some nylons on, she quickly found shoes and wet her hair so it didn't look overly retarded. It would anyways, she figured. Rushing to finish getting dressed, her room seemed so big in that very moment, and everything seemed so far apart, what was happening?

She took one last final moment to look at herself in the mirror, taking in everything all at once, and questioning everything she took in. Even now something seemed like it should have been there.

Sakura and Naruto talked the whole way to the ramen restaurant, but all the while she couldn't take her mind off of the raven boy who simply followed behind in silence. What was he always thinking of that kept him so distracted from reality? He wasn't shy, was he? Him and Sasuke were like brothers, so it shouldn't be that hard to socialize with one other person and his brother right?

Suddenly her body felt warm as she remembered him kissing her forehead the day before, vowing to never let anyone cause harm to her. It had felt so… simply sweet, but what was his deal? And how the hell was he going to keep a promise like that? They barely even knew each other.

Before she knew it they were in a completely unfamiliar part of town with noticeably smaller buildings and more market places. Everyone seemed to know Naruto and Sasuke as the people began calling out to them on their way over to the ramen place. Maybe this was closer to where they lived, she pondered. It had to be, everyone was so a taken with them.

"It's over this way.." Naruto beamed with excitement while grabbing her hand and galloping happily to a place titled 'Ichiraku, number one pleasure', breaking her whole thought process in the process. Sakura gandered around, suddenly feeling very glad she hadn't worn any of those tight black dresses, the ramen shop was an outside stand and it barely had enough room to house people. Behind the counter was a larger man with extremely squinted eyes and a young maiden behind him. She smiled at Naruto and Sasuke upon seeing them.

"ahhhh, Naruto! Sasuke, welcome!" his large voice bellowed. "I see you brought a date with you Naruto eh?" the man chuckled, Sakura realized that Naruto was still holding her hand. "It's not like that!" Naruto began defensively, "she's mine and teme's friend… this is Sakura!" Naruto pushed her forward and seated her at the bar. The man grabbed her hand and kissed it, making Sakura surface blush. "Well Sakura, you're in for a real treat this afternoon. You're in good hands, so please, enjoy yourself." He said while turning and beginning the necessary preparations for their ramen.

It wasn't long before their meals arrived and went, Sakura watched as Naruto scarfed down his 3rd bowl of ramen, he wasn't joking when he said his favorite; it was a wonder why the boy was as skinny and as fit as he was. They had already been sitting there chatting for 2 hours about nothing, time seemed to flow differently when they were near. She already knew that they had interrupted her life's normal time flow, they made all colors mesh, and with them it was difficult to separate fact from fiction.

For the majority of Sakura's life she felt that things had been set in stone, nothing extra ordinary ever happened, and not that meeting two extremely handsome boys was extra ordinary or anything, it was just outside her loop of everyday life. When she was with Ino they always seemed to do the same thing, they would shop, eat, and talk about Ino's ever-present situations (and boys). When she was by herself she would do homework, clean and think, her mind being her best weapon. When her family would come around they always said the same things, 'nice to see you honey' and 'when are you getting married?', her mother and father always looked the same, always smelled the same and always spoke the same. To her there wasn't much of a real point in living, it was more of the fact that she had a life, so she might as well attempt to enjoy it and make it as easy and normal as possible.

But when she first laid eyes on Naruto and Sasuke things seemed to change. Just by a first glace she was sure some sort of her life's foundation had been crumbled and instantly rebuilt. Her ever flat world was suddenly in fish eye view and attempting to curl at all of its seams. Then different events outside of her routine happened, some not so good events.

Her monochrome world had colors she never realized it could have. There _were_ stars in the night.

"huuuuuu, alright," Naruto patted his belly after his 4th bowl, indicating he had finished. "I don't think I can eat anymore," he winced, making a full face. 'you sure fatass?' Sasuke grumbled to himself from the other side, Sakura giggled and rested her skinny face on her hands, glancing at him, "where does all that food go to?" the question caught Naruto off guard, where the hell_ did _all of that food go? He blinked several times and thought about it for a second before making a weird smile and giggling. "you don't want to know," was his only answer. After taking a few guesses she figured he was right, she probably didn't want to know. "Alright, teme.. Who's paying?" he turned to Sasuke, who was staring into space.

Slowly Sasuke reclined his head and faced Naruto, holding out his hand. Naruto looked at him for a second and then did the same. Sakura was bewildered for a second, what were they doing?! She watched in amazement, wondering how they were going to figure this dilemma out.

her face fell flat as they started playing rock paper scissors. '_Whoever_ _loses pays' _she supposed.

Naruto kept grumbling 'best two out of three …five out of seven… eight out of ten!" he looked frustrated as the raven boy kept winning. "You're cheating," Sakura interjected, rolling her head on her hand so she could look at Sasuke's face. He glanced at her then shut his eyes tight. She gasped...

'_I swore I saw red… I know I did.!' _She looked confused as he opened his eyes, greeting her with dark coal black eyes. She was going crazy apparently.

Naruto ended up paying for everything, it seemed fair, since the majority of everything on the counter belonged to him, and he lost every single round of rock paper scissors.

Sakura stood outside of the place and respectfully thanked the owner, the meal was as delicious as he had promised it would be, and she defiantly would come back again. Then she turned to Naruto,

"thank you guys for inviting me out," a genuine smile emerged , one she hadn't given anyone in a long while, then waved at them, signaling her leaving. Naruto yelled out quickly, catching her attention before she could even turn to leave. "wait!" he stretched out his hand, reaching for her. "Do you have to go?" his voice seemed shaky and pouty, "There's plenty of other things we can do together, teme has all sorts of movies and games at his place." Naruto gestured to the raven.. Who gave him a wide eyed look.. "We're not going to my place." He spoke with a cold tone. '_Was that the first thing he said all evening?!' _Sakura was curious as to what his place would look like.

Then she pictured a dark dungeon and suddenly wasn't very interested anymore.

"Oh come on, you have a better TV than I do and you know that." Naruto nudged him, playing cute in the process. "Naruto.." he spoke in a low, angry tone, one that caught Sakura's attention, one she didn't want to hear again. "Besides, I already paid for lunch, it's your turn to entertain Sakura, you also wanted her here, you told me so!" Naruto stepped next to Sakura for protection and stared at Sasuke's angry empty face. Sasuke shared glances between the too, then settled on Sakura's face, melting that tough exterior in the process. She didn't say anything, she was just there, and he _had _wanted her to be with them today, with him, he just didn't expect them to want to go back to his place.

"We can't." He finally decided to speak up and kill the lingering silence. Naruto spun around. "That's alright, his place is hella boring anyways!" he gripped her shoulders, quickly getting over his loss. "let's just go to the park!" he gave her a wide grin, "I could push you on the swings and we could fall in love!" Naruto had jokes. Sakura couldn't help but to smile back, "sounds like fun!" surprising herself at how excited her answer sounded. She looked Sasuke in the face, only to find that he had been staring at her as well.

His empty black-hole eyes bore down to her very core, entrapping her soul.

Flashing lights and loud child's music could be heard from a distance, she watched as Naruto instantly lit up upon seeing it. He radiated even more.

"Holy shit!" Naruto jumped up and down when they arrived to the park. "Sakura! It's a carnival!" he grabbed her hand and ran towards it, ignoring all life around him. Sakura quickly grabbed Sasuke, forcing him to run as well.

Naruto had all the same antics of a child at times, she realized, maybe he always radiated the way he did because he was a golden like a child. He was always so very golden.

The ray of colors and music mesmerized Sakura, drawing her back to happier times, times of her childhood. Times before everything went flat. All of the stands were brightly colored and the rides where gigantic, Naruto had paid for himself and Sasuke ended up paying for Sakura's admission ticket.

Sakura watched as Naruto ran around in the center of all the chaos, confused at which stand he should visit first. She chuckled, deciding that Naruto was like a child at a three-ringed circus, he couldn't be contained. Her insides panged with jealousy, when did she lose her old self that was like Naruto? She too wanted to enjoy things the way he did, she wanted to see the world through his eyes. She smiled as he ran over to every candy booth and got one of everything, deciding in the process that Naruto was one of the best kinds of people, someone she could aspire to be like.

"Sakura!" she heard his voice reach out to her from a distance, he was standing next to a small rollercoaster. "let's ride this one first!" he waved..

Sasuke looked at her, her face lit up when Naruto called her, making those deep sea foam green eyes sparkle, she truly was magnificent. 

He watched her run towards Naruto, despite how much he wanted to be the one riding rides with her, he couldn't bring himself to say anything, the right words had left his entire being and stuck him to the earth in the spot in which he stood. He watched with jealousy as Naruto spilled his drink down Sakura's and his leg, making her yell, leave it to Naruto to always ruin everything.

They seemed so far away, and they gave off the appearance of being completely contempt and happy. They looked like a couple, on a date. Whenever they were together they were always laughing, even on the train, all they did was laugh… Sakura's laugh left a sweet taste in his mouth and it played tricks on his mind upon entrance, Naruto's laugh was… well.. Naruto's laugh.. he couldn't change that. Her sweet voice found its way to her ears, forcing him to realized that he wanted to be the one to make Sakura laugh.. He wanted to make her smile.

But instead he just stood there, feet permanently fixated in to the ground, watching them get on the ride. He watched Naruto help Sakura sit down, he watched his hand travel to the small of her back.. he watched his hand go to a place where it shouldn't be, evoking even more jealously as it did.He watched Naruto get on the ride next to her and help her tighten her buckles.

That little bastard was probably pretending this was a date… that only the two of them were on..

"sasssssuuuuuuukeee!" a faint, sweet, voice pulled him out of his jealous mind.

Sakura was waving at him while standing back up in the ride, his stomach tightened, she hadn't forgotten about him. He waved small, feeling foolish for just standing there. "coooommmmmme onnn! The ride hasn't started yet!" she gestured for him to come over. "quickly!" her ever-sweet voice echoed through the park. He smiled at the notion, but decided that he didn't want to watch Naruto sitting with Sakura in front of him. Sasuke made an 'X' with his hands, indicating that he was good where he was. His stomach tightened further as Sakura suddenly jumped out of the ride, Naruto was holding onto her clothing, trying to persuade her that the ride was about to begin. She shook him off and quickly made her way to Sasuke….

…closing the distance between the two.

"Come on," Sakura outstretched her hand. "We're all here together aren't we?" she looked him in the eye , gracing him with a smile. He studied her eyes; they were such a brilliant dead green. "I don't really ride rides." His voice cracked, due to his persistent lack of communication. "Me neither," she chuckled cutely. "But that's not stopping me from having fun.. Come on! The rides about to begin, we're already here so we might as well enjoy it." She offered her hand to him again. He hesitated-ly reached his raven claw out, wanting to take her delicate human hand, She saw the offer and grabbed his claw quickly, pulling him along.

In the end Sakura and Sasuke both missed the ride by less than 30 seconds, leaving Naruto slightly disappointed. He complained about it later, saying some fat guy sat next to him who refused to abandon his bag of potato chips. Said man claimed his name was Choji, but who really cared right?

"Awww!" Sakura ran over to a small booth, something fascinated her both boys ventured, but what? Both began walking in her direction, deciding that the easiest way was just to go see what she was looking at.

Sakura took a ball into her hand, "come on! I can do this!" she kissed the ball for ladies' luck and tossed it at the target, missing it miserably. "sorry sweetie, " A slender with a cigarette and the smell of cheap hooker turned in her direction, " you have to hit all the targets to win the prize." He gave her a gross creepy smile, making her innards feel disgusting.

"hahaha," Naruto laughed upon approaching, " your aim is terrible!" put his arm around her. "Narutoooo~!" she gave him a little shove, disapproving of his teasing. "Which one are you trying to get?" he said while eyeballing all of the stuffed bears. Sakura felt like a child wanting a toy, but nevertheless, she sheepishly pointed at a light-pink-orange bunny, with gigantic floppy ears, blue eyes, and a patch of yellow hair on the top. "alright, one ball please," Naruto said while putting money on the table. "you need three to hit all the targets, can't you count?" the man laughed while leaning on the table. Sakura watched with interest, beginning to wonder the same thing. "I'll only need one." Naruto held up his finger. The man turned "alright, but when you go home cryin' to mama…" he turned back and put a single ball on the table. Naruto accepted it and smirked.

He kept one arm around Sakura the whole time.. Sasuke noticed. He felt like he was one the outside of the crowd, watching in.

Sakura watched in amazement as Naruto, with one hand, hit all three targets, with one ball. The man's jaw dropped. "Just how the fuck did you do that?!" he looked at the targets all bent down, then back to Naruto. Naruto winked at Sakura, then looked at the man, "it's a secret," he said... "Now give my little lady the gift she wants." He spoke the last part firmly.

Sasuke watched Sakura light up as she received the bunny, she jumped a little and held it close to her face mumbling something about how soft it was. Everything about her looked so cute when she was happy.

As the time escaladed, Naruto continued to win every prize Sakura wanted, she had like a million stuffed animals. It drove Sasuke mad.

Afterwards they rode what felt like countless rides by the time the moon began to show its pristine ivory face.

Standing alone in outside of the bathrooms, Sakura looked up at the Farris wheel, the feeling of want clutched in her stomach, Naruto and Sasuke were inside, apparently their bladders were too small to hold. She couldn't believe that she had spent the whole day with them. They were quickly becoming good friends, she told herself, strangely wanting to be friends with the both of them. The Farris wheel sigh blinked again, pulling her away from her thoughts and drawing her attention to it. She focused on the colored wheel and walked over to it, one quick ride by herself shouldn't be that bad.

The man smiled at her as she approached. "One please!" she smiled back, "right this way ma'am." He opened the door. "Since you're the only one in the line I'll just start with only you." He said while getting behind the machines conducting station. Sakura smiled as the machine began to move, lifting her high up into the air very slowly.

In that moment everything seemed so surreal, everything melted into one emotion that didn't have words to describe it. She felt content, and a wave of nostalgia washed over her, killing every lingering thought. The world was so very round at that very moment; everything could be seen as it truly was, as it truly should be. She was as free as a bird, a child once again.

Sasuke stepped around the corner to were Sakura should have been, but wasn't any longer. Fear for her came down upon him like a vivid black cloud; he looked around for vibrant pink hair, but saw nothing. _Where is she?_

Sasuke sat in silence for a second before he began to move. She was at the Farris wheel.

Sakura reached the peak of the ride, the absolute top. Holding her arms out as if to fly, she leaned over the side and smiled down at all the people, they didn't know her, nor would they ever. If everything ended right now, she wouldn't regret anything.

Suddenly the seat shook, and something grabbed her arms, leaning against her back. "What are you doing?" a soft voice came. Shocked, she turned to face the voice, Sasuke. "What the? Sasuke?" She touched him to make sure she wasn't dreaming. He smirked at her, not quite knowing how to do a real smile yet. She looked over the side to see that they were still pretty high up, then looked over his side.. "How did you get up here?" she sat back down and gazed into his eyes. "What are you talking about Sakura? I've been here the whole time." He spoke softly. "Don't you remember?"

Sakura smiled at him, then laughed. "noooooo~ I'm pretty sure I got on here by myself." She said while sitting across from him instead of beside him. Something was up… he had a knack of appearing out of nowhere. "You have a bad memory, that's why." He joked.. "I do not!" her voice squealed slightly "I'll have you know that I happen to be the only medic in my facility that can remember a patient's exact prescription!" she confessed while giving him a gentle shove. He chuckled. "For a medic you're pretty weak," he smirked. "uhh!" her mouth gapped open in a smile. "how dar…" "maybe it was magic" he interrupted her thought while leaning back in his seat and staring her in the face. She just sat there, confused and not knowing what to think…

"yea.." she finally leaned back to.. "maybe it was."

"so you work in a Konoha hospital?" he positioned himself into a slouch. "Yea, …well.. it's an internship, I'm fresh out of med school," she said. "aren't you a bit young?" his eyes questioned hers. "I actually graduated early, top of my class too. My teacher said I was a natural prodigy," she said. "Is that so?" Sasuke had to admit, he was slightly impressed. She smiled, feeling a little proud of herself. "What kinda jobs do you and Naruto do?" she leaned back in the chair, "we both work in a bookstore that our friend owns. It has a little café in the front where I work, and a book store in the back where Naruto is." he said. Sakura picked Sasuke in a little café maid outfit, then shook the ideal from her head, giggling. "oh? Which one? I love books." She leaned on her knees, closing the distance in-between them. "it's in the heart of Konoha, it's called 'Paradise's book n café'," he confessed. "Maybe I'll stop by one day to see you both" she smiled.

Sasuke looked at her, then the bunny she hadn't let go of, jealousy panged. "You like them?" his voice caught her attention, "what?" she looked confused before he pointed to the stuffed animal, "oh? Usagi?" she cuddled it next to her face, "it's pretty cute right? I know I'm too old for things like this, but sometimes I just can't help myself," Sasuke just watched her, her face was tinted bright colors by all the carnival signs, it made her look mystical and beautiful.

The ride came to a floating stop, flattening the world again. Naruto stood outside of the machine, his arms folding and him glaring at Sasuke. "can I talk with you?" he sounded pissed as he directed the question to Sasuke. "What do you want?" Sasuke stuck his hands in his pocket, acting cool and nonchalant, his voice was leveled. "this way _please_… Sakura please wait for us." The anger was clear in his voice.

They stood behind the men's bathroom as to not be heard by Sakura. "What are you doing dumbass!?" Naruto shoved Sasuke up against the wall, "first you use your sharingan to cheat at paper-rock-scissors, which I'm sure Sakura saw! Because you FUCKING LOOKED AT HER!" he said. "It's one thing to locate Sakura by her chakra, but then you fucking jump up onto the Farris wheel? Are you trying to lead her on!?" Naruto was pissed, causing Sasuke to get pissed too. The raven boy shoved off the wall and knocked Naruto's hands off his shoulders. "And what about you kyuubi boy!? How accurate were all of those shots when you were winning prizes for Sakura! Don't think you can fucking do that without your chakra can you?! And all those strength test?! You're just as guilty as me! You didn't miss once, and you got her every-fucking-thing she asked for!" "That's different! And you know it!" Naruto pointed in his face. "Anyone could have accuracy like that!" they stared hard at one another, then Sasuke smacked Naruto's hand out of his face. "Look, obviously were both trying to impress her," Naruto folded his arms, and rotated his body. Discovering the problem, he turned to Sasuke.

"You like her huh?" his blue eyes widened as realization dawned upon him. Sasuke just looked at him, "what?" his pale face scrunched. "I knew it!" Naruto threw his hands up in the air and made a turn. "you would fall for the beautiful girl we both meet and make her fall for you!" Naruto folded his arms. Sasuke just looked at him, appalled. "what the hell are you talking about Naruto," his question angered the blonde, "you know _exactly_ what I'm talking about!" Naruto yelled. "I don't even understand how this matters," Sasuke turned. Naruto yanked him around, "because then you want to impress her by using your fucking chak..."

"…shhhh!" Sasuke grabbed his mouth, cutting Naruto's words off as rustling was heard. Sakura stepped around the corner looking very lost and confused, _how much did she hear? _

"Is everything alright? I thought I heard yelling?" she looked into both of their eyes, her eyes trailing to Sasuke's claw that covered Naruto's mouth. He quickly let go. "Yea!" Naruto shrugged it off; "we were just coming up with… a surprise for you!" he smiled, saying the first thing he thought of. "dumbass, it's not a surprise anymore." Sasuke played along. Naruto smacked his head. "Damn, your right!" Sakura laughed. "Well, what's the surprise?!" she leaned forward, suddenly feeling very interested. "yea Sasuke? What was it again?" Naruto turned to him, rubbing the space under his nose and putting Sasuke on the spot. Damn the little bastard.

Sasuke turned to Sakura, his mouth opened as he tried to think up a lie…. "I… can't say… we'd have to show you,.." he lied. Her smile brightened up. "Sounds like fun! When can I see it?!" she radiated, finally. Sasuke turned to Naruto, "good question?! Is it done yet?" his eyes were wide. "Nope.. me and teme are still working on it.. Sorry Sakura. I guess you'll just have to hang out with us again if you want to see the surprise." He said, smiling at her hard. "Yep!" Sasuke quickly agreed. Both turned to her with wide eyes.

She looked confused, but accepted their strange actions. "Okay! I really enjoy hanging out with you guys anyways! We should do this more often!" she smiled. "Agreed!" Naruto jumped over to her. "We should get going now though, because it's passed dinner time! And I'm feeling the need for some more ramen, what about you?!" he put his arm around her shoulder and started walking away.. Sasuke heard Sakura decline the ramen.

Sakura stepped into her dark apartment, instantly eyeing the clock. It was well beyond midnight and well beyond her sleeping hour; nothing productive would come out of tomorrow.

She walked into her bedroom, it gave off the appearance that hurricane had gone through it, and where was her bed again?

Finding it buried under a pile of clothing, Sakura jumped on her bed, kicked everything aside, and began recollecting the events of the night, she now had about 20+ stuffed animals, courtesy of Naruto, who was strangely good at pitching. All the bears stared at her from a corner of her room, they probably didn't understand why the bunny got to sleep on the bed, and they had to sleep on the floor. They couldn't understand her logics. In the end they ate ramen anyways, during that time her and Naruto exchanged cellphone numbers to keep in touch. They wanted to hang out again tomorrow, since Sakura didn't have work.

She grabbed her 'Usagi' and squeezed it tight to her body, part of her was really looking forward to hanging out with them again. They both seemed pretty chill.

Hours began to pass and it wasn't long until she found herself giving way to her subconscious, her imagination that would make impossible things possible.

Suddenly her phone vibrated, disturbing her dark peace and temporarily yanking her from her fake world. She grabbed the phone, yanking the screen open to receive a media message from Naruto.

She smiled, it was a picture of her, Naruto, and Sasuke in the ramen place before they went elsewhere. Naruto had both of his arms around them both, showing all of his teeth and none of his eyes as he smiled, Sasuke had a half-doesn't-really-count smile and a small peace sign, Sakura's mouth was open in a smile, her eyes were such a bright green. At the bottom of the screen was the kanji for friends and a message attached saying 'oi! Sleep well! v c u 2morrow.. the bastard said g'nite 2 :D'.

She smiled at Naruto's annoying text, it was difficult to read especially when she was half asleep, she could hear him saying the words though, it sounded like him. Today had been a good day, the earth defiantly didn't seem flat, and nothing was routine. She could get used to this.

The doorbell chimed, luring Sakura away from her imagination, she groaned a little and slipped off the bed, instantly arousing her for slumber. She peaked her head up and looked at the alarm clock, it read ' 5:49 a.m.'. Apparently someone wanted to die, coming to her door this early in the morning.

She slugged her way to her front door and looked out the peep hole, it looked as empty as her stomach felt. Deciding against all odds, she opened the door. No one was there.

Then something soft fell against her leg causing her to look down.

A deep black-blue stuffed bunny with a transparent red ribbon leaned against her foot, it bore a small note on its stomach with the words 'be my friend too,' on it. She leaned down and picked the bunny up, looking around for whoever left the gift so she could thank them, but no one was around. Giving up she went inside and closed the door, taking the bunny with her.

From a distance Sasuke watched her as she lit up upon receiving it. His jealousy dispersing as she smiled.

**Author's note:**

Okay! This chapter was supposed to mainly be about them spending time together, and I think I got that covered! ^w^…. Im still not very skilled at writing, and I've edited this chapter til my fingers bleed, but I'm sure theres still several mistakes hiding around, so if you see any, don't hesitate to tell me! :O I will fix them!

Sasuke seems to be a little jealous of Sakura's and Naruto's friendship….. he's so cute, giving her a little bunny. D'awww…. :D he just wants to make her happy…

I'm really big into Sakura and Sasuke, and I know that this chapter doesn't really show that because there isn't much of Sasuke in here, its more of him just standing and watching from a distance. I'm not very good at writing characters, and they don't seem like they do in the manga, or Sasuke wouldn't be hanging with them in the first place. I trying to write them as if nothing had ever happened to them, and obviously Sakura isn't a ninja. But she's still a medic! :D

She's one of my favorite characters so I had a lot of fun writing her in these last two chapters!

Theres going to be a lot of romance in this story, that's why I already have them developing feelings, theres no need to draw it out.

Until next time! ^v^


	3. going away

**GOING AWAY  
**

**Chapter three! whoooo get excited! I feel very excited for this story!**

**'son i am not everything you thought that i would be,  
**

**but every story I have told is part of me'  
**

**How I go, yellowcard  
**

* * *

The weeks seemed to soar right over Sakura's head, confusing her and not sparing a single second to breathe, she nearly chocked.. It seemed that three weeks had already left her behind so very effortlessly, three long weeks of knowing the two very-nonhuman-like spawns that had fallen from some god that had reshaped her very existence. Filling unwritten voids that she had never known about. Time was a pain in the ass, simply put.

Ino rolled around like an exhilarated child in a chair who just discovered the wonders of spinning and getting sick, she held something in her hand.

"Just look at this picture forehead," Ino demanded, sliding her chair Sakura's way...who was currently elbow deep in making dinner, it wasn't gonna make itself. "Ino, I have to watch the food." Sakura stated rather grumpily, pointing her wooden spoon to a pot of some sorts of concoction.. Her attempt to resist the picture annoyed Ino to hell and back, she boiled so fast she stood! "The damn food can watch itself for two seconds, it's not going anywhere, trust me!" she huffed while yanking Sakura around and thrusting the picture into her hands, some things never change.

Annoyed, Sakura finally rested her eyes upon the picture, it was of her and Ino as children in a brilliant lush green meadow of vibrantly colored flowers with other kids, they both were wearing light pink Easter dresses and had different colored bunny ears fixated to the top of their heads, they were cute in short. "I ate so much chocolate that day.." Ino laid her chin on Sakura's shoulder romantic style while patting her stomach, "I'm sure that's the reason I have these lovely lady love handles today.." she sighed, going elsewhere. "Yea right, don't blame it on your childhood, I don't call you pig for nothing," Sakura just had to tease her

Ino was by no means overweight; in fact she wasn't even close. She was a lean girl with a nice hourglass figure, long defined legs and firm arms. She possessed long beautifully taken cared of blond hair and deep-shining cerulean blue eyes backed up by long lushes lashes that fluttered perfectly when she blinked. She was only one glance away from a nosebleed and dropping dead. Most guys attempted to touch her god-like atmosphere, failing miserably despite most of their excellent looks and beautifully defined and cut body. Even though she could pretty much have whoever the hell she wanted, she still ended up with a slouch like Shikamaru, confessing from the very pit-bottom of her heart that he 'complemented every aspect of her'. Whatever that meant.

Contemplating about the origins of the picture, Sakura asked; "Where did you even find this?" she turned, her eyes beaming with want for knowledge that only Ino could provide. "My mother had it in an old dusty frame in her flower shop. I hadn't been there in a while and found it when I visited." Ino dragged the chair away from the counter and back onto the carpet. "Your forehead is still hella huge here, all those years you tried covering it up, and noooooothin worked." She chuckled while rubbing her index finger over the picture and sat back down in the rolling chair… Sakura made a face, but eventually gave into laughter as well. Reminiscing could be nice, whenever it wanted to be.

Things back then were so much more simple, there was no need to stress over things like love. Only childish affairs.

* * *

After some time passed the door sang a sweet chiming melody, scaring the hell out of Ino, and apparently the chair from Ino. Sakura doubled over laughing as Ino slipped out of the chair and onto the floor, looking foolish in the process. Served her goofy ass right. "whoever the hell it is, is early!" she quickly regained an upright stance, angry at all those who entered through the door.

"Who's early?" A smooth deep man's voice came, blinding Ino from her previous anger as it flooded the vicinity of the area. "Shikamaru!" Ino squealed while practically flying across the living room, like a child missing her daddy. Her actions seemed so expected as he caught her and gave her a small but sweet peck on the lips. Shikamaru then he turned to Sakura, acknowledging her existence as he did, "thanks for having us over." He spoke while glancing the house over, it was his first time ever being in her living space. He deemed it worthy of his presence at best.

Shikamaru was the first to arrive, soon Neji and Tenten followed, then Kiba with his friends Shino and Hinata. Rock lee brought 'gifts', annoying gifts, he also brought a larger boy named Choji who, to Sakura's great relief, brought more food.

She couldn't help but to smile as all of her friends began to arrive, she wanted to throw a small but sweet congratulations 'get-together' for Neji and Tenten, who were apparently getting married. The information was surprising, both Tenten and Neji tended to keep to themselves and each other, excluding usually everyone else out of their lives. But as Tenten's stomach grew bigger and bigger each day and her and Neji became more MIA at work more and more people began to ask questions, Ino the gossip included. They confessed like ashamed children, stating that Tenten was indeed beautifully two months pregnant and her and Neji were going to get married in a month or so, before she began showing too much. Since Sakura had really always valued and appreciated the both of them, she figured it would be socially acceptable to throw them this 'get together', then of course Ino talked her into it, using every sweet word in the English dictionary.

The door chimed once more, lulling her from her thoughts, "I'll get it!" Sakura heard Ino call out over the music someone was attempting (and failing at)to DJ.

Ino yanked the door open; her large blue eyes became even wider as she stared two extremely handsome strangers in the face. "Who the hell are you guys? Entertainment?" her eyes wondered to brilliant sky-blue eyes, then to obscure black ones that relayed no message, hand firmly placed on her hip. " I could say the same" Naruto smiled and winked while leaning in the door frame, pulling Ino a little closer to him, even he couldn't escape the traps in which her beauty laid out. He heard Ino let out a small gasp satisfaction nested in him. "ahh.. Naruto, Sasuke." Sakura's voice cracked the two's newly formed circle. "I see you've met Ino," she smiled at both Naruto and Sasuke at the same time. "I have indeed." Naruto spoke without ever breaking eye contact with an ever-red Ino, her breathing hitched as If she was under some sorts of trance. Apparently she couldn't escape the trap he laid out either, never once did she lay her eyes on Sasuke again.

Sakura noticed Sasuke' eyes wonder over all the people in the little apartment, no expression showing across his aristocratic like features. Maybe inviting them wasn't a good idea since they hadn't known any of Sakura's friends.

"Holy shit! Party!" Naruto smiled and embraced Sakura finally, leaving Ino in a pile of uncontrollable hormones. Upon seeing Naruto's reaction and expression she changed her previous thought, of course Naruto would be able to enjoy being around a lot of people, it was Sasuke who might not fare so well. Naruto's smell wafted over her, making her sway with nausea. He had a unique sweet kind of smell that she had gotten used to, since he was always gipping her tightly. During the past three weeks they seemed to hang out every Saturday and Sunday, and if Sakura was free during any other day they were at her place or she was with them. They did indeed become friends, just like she knew they would.

When they were around her nothing seemed predestined, nothing was written in stone, there had only been the flowing time, time that left those who could keep up behind. They both taught her how to flow right with time.

Naruto waltz past Sakura, eyeing Ino with hungry eyes the whole time, arousing a blush on her painted face. Sakura watched as Ino followed behind him like a dog in heat, what about Shikamaru? Surely Ino hadn't forgotten of him already, … right?

"Are these all your friends?" his cold voice froze the very tips of her ears, causing her to turn back to him. "no, I just met some of them a today, the others I work with." She looked at him, he was still standing on the outside of her apartment, looking ever-so uninvited.

Not really knowing why he agreed to come in the first place, Sasuke scratched at the side of his neck, he knew all too well that he didn't do well with other people, even she had learned that. It wasn't that Sasuke was unable to communicate properly with people, he was just very socially awkward, making people think that he was 'too stuck up' to humor them a few words. It didn't help that he was unearthly beautiful for a boy, making him seem like he was that way because he _knew _he was beautiful. Truth was he just never had the right words and found no really point in feeding people fake ones to make them feel better about themselves.

With Sakura everything was different. He could sit and have a long conversation about nothing with her as long as the dobe wasn't around. It seemed that whenever Naruto decided to grace them with his presence he sucked up all the energy Sakura was willing to give out, leaving none for Sasuke to even digest. It didn't help that the dobe found pleasure in standing Sasuke up either when it came to Sakura. There had been several times when Naruto was found alone with Sakura stating that he 'just wanted to treat her to some ice cream.' For the past couple of weeks he had deliberately been pulling at Sakura's heart strings, getting her every single thing she wanted and secretly taking her out to places she enjoyed. Sasuke knew what Naruto felt for Sakura without Naruto having to say anything to him. He should know, after all he was always standing behind the two as they laughed like a couple before him, forgetting of his presence all together.

The jealousy that festered inside of him hurt so unbearably bad.

Whenever Naruto wanted to talk lately it was always about Sakura, and how cute she looked in her autumn's coat, or how her green eyes sparkled when they met. He shared how her skin felt against his when they hugged, and how her small hands were most likely made to fit his, all the while knowing that it annoyed Sasuke.

Her fucking hands were made to fit _his_! Not Naruto's.

"I don't really want to be here." Sasuke decided to be direct, his outright words stung Sakura like a hard hand smack to the face. Her eyes betrayed bewilderment, "why not?" she folded her arms automatically across her chest, guarding her away from him, her voice cracking in the process of all this. He glanced over at all the people, then back to her ever-confused written eyes. "I don't know any of them," his lips pressed together sweetly, drawing Sakura in for the kill… till she realized she couldn't touch them.

"Neither does Naruto, but he's having a great time," she gestured to him and Shikamaru, who were on both sides of Ino, sharing what looked like a beer. Sakura felt joy arise, she was glad Naruto was able to fit in so easily. Then she turned back to the worried raven boy, his eyes betrayed no emotion.

"yea, but you know he's like that with everyone, I can't ….be" he avoided her direct look before it poisoned him, making him weak.

Sakura knew his confession to be true, that's when something sparked in her mind.

"I have an idea," she gave him a sly smirk.

* * *

"Like this?" a very out-of-its-element voice rang.

Sakura looked over at the disaster on her cutting board, "oh gosh no, you're doing it wrong." She sped walked over to where the raven boy was standing in an attempt to not lose everything, giggling at how lost he was.

Sasuke had attempted to cut up the rest of the potatoes for the last bit of food Sakura would be serving, but instead of cutting them into something akin to squares (or at least rectangles,) he had pretty much mushed the whole damn potato, destroying its very essence. It cried out for help as Sakura approached.

She grabbed his cold clammy claws in her small hands, and went over the motion with him, "you have to make sure you're not cutting too close, or you'll end up with this," she gestured to the weird assortment of potatoes he produced.

Sasuke eyed his mess, agreeing that her way was probably best. His potatoes looked afraid and miserable; the ones she cut would gladly be eaten.

Since socializing with everyone seemed to be a difficult task for him, Sakura decided that it was best if he stuck to her side, and then eased him into everyone later, not that people weren't wondering who the hell he was. I mean, tall handsome stranger-man with a frilly apron on, who wouldn't? She saw the way Ino stared, but then again Ino stared at any handsome 'dick' that walked on two legs. Sasuke didn't pay any of them any attention, she wasn't even sure if he had a bad case of shyness or something else, but he sure as hell didn't want to talk with the others.

* * *

It wasn't long until Naruto walked up, encasing his arm around Sakura's petite waist. "You have some pretty cute friends," he smiled at her. Sasuke watched as Naruto held her like a husband holds a wife, he didn't approve. "That Ino girl, she's …. She's something else." He smiled and rested his head on her shoulder, Sakura agreeing the whole time. Damn Ino, couldn't control herself. "Do you see that boy with the spikey black ponytail?" Sakura mused, deciding it was hi-time she ruined Ino's fun. "Shikamaru?" Naruto glanced over to him. "Yea, that's the one, that's her boyfriend."

She felt Naruto's arms release her waist. "Seriously? She tricked me! How come they never said anything? I've been flirting and grinding on her for the past twenty minutes since we met and she never even bothered to say anything." Naruto went babbling off, clearly not amused with Ino's actions.

"What was that about?" Sasuke walked over with another mushed pile of potatoes, cooking obviously wasn't his forte. "He was interested in my friend, but she's already seeing someone." Sakura laughed at the unfortunate situation, Ino and Naruto were both heartbreakers, but the only hearts they would be breaking tonight would be their own.

Sakura sighed and looked at Sasuke's messed up tray of not-really potatoes. "Okay, for the sake of not buying any more potatoes I'll have you do something else." She took the tray. Sasuke looked at her pile, and then back to his, his potatoes were disfigured, not even their mothers would be able to recognize them anymore. "we could have mashed potatoes?" he suggested while leaning against the counter and watching Sakura place his mess away. She thought it over, considering how many potatoes were going to go to waste, and how many more people from the hospital would arrive, his idea was probable at best.

"you know," Sasuke took a seat outside of her kitchen at the bar, so he could watch her work flawlessly. "you shouldn't let him hold onto you like that."

His words told himself that he was fed up with Naruto touching her, one of two things were gonna eventually happen, either Naruto stop with the 'this is my girlfriend/ soon to be wife' hugs and touches, or Sasuke rip and break all of his fingers. The later ideal was sounding really good.

Sakura turned around, semi startled at his words. "Naruto?" she gave him green questioning eyes as her brows furrowed, displaying whether or not she heard him right. "mmhmmm." Sasuke nodded his head. Half way amused, Sakura leaned up against the counter. "And why not? He doesn't mean any harm, Naruto is always like that." _Always. _Sasuke just stared at his hands, _and why not again? _The answer was so very simple, because he wanted to hold Sakura that way, which meant that no one else could.

"No reason," his reply was short. "He might get the wrong idea, is all. I don't want him to end up heartbroken or anything."

Sasuke played it off as if he was looking out for the radiant being, Sakura fell for it. She then found the blonde in the crowd of medics, not really realizing how many other people had showed up. He was already hugging up on the purple haired girl named Hinata, she wasn't too worried. "I think he's just that way," she pointed with her eyes, causing Sasuke to follow. That little bastard sure did enjoy touching women.

* * *

The party seemed successful enough, everyone was having a blast and more and more people continued to show up. Sakura ended up serving mashed potatoes in the end anyways, since food was quickly becoming scarce, and her wallet was quickly collecting dust.

She decided it was time to introduce Sasuke, since she had left him to join the party in the hopes of him joining in too. When he didn't she realized that he needed an extra oomph.

Sasuke watched as Sakura waltzed over to him, her movements were hypnotized him, when she grabbed his hand electricity shot through his body, killing all the cold. "Please, come meet some of my friends." She pretended to offer, but didn't really give him a choice. His palms were cold and sweaty at the same time.

"Ino," Sakura called out to her ass shaking friend, who was once again grinding against Naruto, _where was Shikamaru again? _

The pig halted when Naruto stopped, he always wanted to hear Sakura out, then he saw her dragging the 'teme' behind her and decided he didn't really care. "What is it forehead!?" Ino asked over the screeching music. Sakura pulled Sasuke in front of her as if she were offering him up. "This is Sasuke, the boy from earlier" she peeked around his tall frame with an ever-present smile on her face, watching as Ino blushed and offered her hand. Sasuke shook it quickly and turned around to Sakura, not looking pleased, leaving Ino confused. _Why hadn't he fallen in her trap?_

Sakura proceeded to introduce Sasuke to her immediate friends, it wasn't long till she realized that her small congratulations party had somehow turned into something club equivalent. She eyed beer, and other strange drinks that people must have brought with them, and people who she had never seen before. Where the hell were all these people coming from? She questioned while noticing that her apartment door wasn't even closed.

Sasuke yanked his hand away from hers in the crowd. She looked up at his tall pale frame with a questioning. "I'm leaving; I have to get up early." He stated and headed directly for the door.

She felt bad and helpless as he began to leave, and decided it was best to at least see him home, since he obviously didn't have a good time.

Eventually she would break him into the social life, he would figure out that it was much better than being lonely.

* * *

Sasuke was nearly halfway down the hallway before she even got out the door; he was trying hard to get home quickly without running. Damn that boy moved like lightening, she thought when her eyes rested on his nearly gone figure. "Sasuke!" her small, angelic voice called out, confusing him upon reaching his ears.

Sasuke turned, startled. "Sakura, what are you doing?" he questioned as she approached. " im sorry you didn't really have a good time, I just didn't want you to miss out and think that I didn't want you around. So I figured that I should at least see you home, it's the nicest thing I can do for you now." She smiled at him. "I don't need you to, I don't need protection or anything." His words were honest, she knew he didn't need her to, he was the big boy on the swings who no one would attempt to kick off. "I want to! It's the least I can do, I'll be fine." She closed the small distance between them even more so.

He didn't give in till a small 'please Sasuke' slipped from her lips. His voice sounded ten times better when she was the one saying it.

* * *

Sasuke and Sakura sat silently on the slow train to his mysterious place, she hadn't been there yet, and he damn sure didn't want her there now. But it was already too late to change his mind and take her back, on top of that he had already offended her several times tonight. Looking at the clock, Sasuke decided that it was already well beyond the witching hour, and half of the people who were usual riders had already closed their eyes and beckoned the sleeping man to aid them in dreams.

They had already been riding the train for an hour without saying a word to each other, the silence was unnerving, all he really need was for her to be near. And near she was.

Sasuke jumped slightly as Sakura's head slumped against his shoulder when the train hitched on the tracks, her falling on him caught him off his usual guard.

Her playful pink eyelashes fluttered against her cheeks slightly as the raven looked down to see that she had fallen asleep already. Sakura was the type of person who needed to talk in order to stay awake on long boring rides, and she and Sasuke hadn't spoken a single word since they left her apartment complex. He wasn't sure if he should rouse her from her slumber, or just let her rest, seeing as she was tired enough to fall asleep. Sasuke kept his eyes on her, her face was as sweet asleep as it was awake; a silent beauty was what she had become. When her head kept moving and rolling off his shoulder Sasuke decided it was best to shift positions to make her more comfortable, since his position was so stiff that it was ridiculous anyways. He slouched back and leaned slightly to the side, allowing her to lay midway on his arm and chest, near his heart. Maybe she would dream in rhythm with its beating, hearing it cry out for her, and know that Sasuke was finally the one embracing her. Accepting the invitation silently, she cuddled against him, bringing all her warmth with her. Sasuke stiffened more and turned a bright sharingan red, her body was so very organic, so very round and melodic, she was an angel to say at least. One that god had accidently let slip from heaven and into his arms, on his chest.

He wanted to keep her like this with him always. He wasn't sure when he had begun to feel this way about her, or why he began to feel this way about her, but he didn't want to change that. He loved every second he spent with her, and if his life was different he would spend more time with her, he would always hold her like he was now, he wouldn't ever leave her side. She would become his, and he hers. But his lifestyle just didn't permit that, and in that very moment he knew that she would never truly belong to him.

He could admit that to himself even though it hurt to.

* * *

The train came to a smooth stop, lulling Sakura from her sleep. She awoke to a very comfortable sensation, like smelling her favorite flowers on a warm summer's day. Something was pleasantly warm against her head and body, keeping her from freezing in this 0 degrees atmosphere. The sensations attempted to fool her into falling back to sleep, but the beeping of the train told her otherwise; besides, the train knew what it was talking about.

Pulling back slightly and hissing when the light finally reached her eyes, she realized that Sasuke had fallen asleep against her head, they both had fallen into a very comfortable sleep. Sasuke now leaned against the back of the chair, drool escaping his ever-pink lips and a small noise coming after. _He snored?_ She giggled, then patted her head for drool. Surely enough it was damp where he was.

Half stuck between searching for her phone to get a picture of his cuteness and theyre current need to get off the train, she shook him.

"Sasuke, this is the right stop…" she shook him again slightly, forcing him away from his exhaling dreams. He stood quickly, wiping his mouth in the process, "lets go!" he quickly jumped off the train before the doors closed. Sakura, feeling confused, followed after. What a strange boy he was.

Sasuke walked fast and shoved his hands in his pocket, embarrassed that he had fallen asleep on the train, and drooled none-the less. _Had Sakura seen it?_ It was gross, he could own up to that.

"hey! Sasuke!" Sakura jogged slightly to catch up. "why are you walking so fast? Wait for me!" she said while reaching his side, holding on to his arm in an attempt to slow him down. It worked.

As they exited the underground subway and hit the road to his place, She and Sasuke both became suddenly very aware of the world, as they both swayed on their feet. The moon stared down at them with a full ivory white face, lighting their path with an unwritten frozen jealousy that only ground-walkers couldn't feel. Sasuke realized that he had stood up to fast, all to avoid being embarrassed by the ugly truth, when the truth always seemed to follow him anyways, there was no such thing as escape. Surely enough he had already learned that.

They walked along the streets under the jealous moon holding onto each other's sleepy body, all the while red eyes glaring down at them. Sending unfelt messages of hate all the way.

"It's your baby brother," a cackling gruff voice broke fragile silence. "Should we say hello?" the voice mused more than it asked, getting all too excited in anticipation for an answer. A pale hand with purple fingernails was raised in an effort to silence the quaking being's body. "If you look closer," a stronger voice directed, "you'll see that he isn't alone." Shark eyes narrowed in pass the raven boy, finding a flower by its side, the gruff voice let out a wicked laugh that could wake the dead, "he's fallen in love? How pathetic" he spat.

* * *

Sasuke couldn't shake the strange feeling of being watched the whole way to his place, which was a ridiculous notion. Of course he was being watched, everyone was being watched by careful porcelain animal painted masks in death-black cloaks. His head was too tired to process anything anyways.

They walked to his apartment door holding onto each other, it was freezing cold outside, and the same temperature seemed to follow them inside. Body warmth is what would keep them alive.

"This is it." He turned to face Sakura upon arriving at a dark blue door with a red and white fan on it, "I didn't realize that you lived so far out." Her dreary voice came, letting him know that she was done in for the night. In the end it had taken them two hours to get to his place from hers, the outskirts of Konoha were far from the beating-breathing heart of it.

"alright Sasuke, good night." Sakura looked at the raven through half-hooded eyes, patting his shoulder and made to turn to head home. He heard her body tell him that it wouldn't make it home if he let her go alone. The thought of her riding solo on the train in her current state of being scared the hell out of him, then against all of his better judgment he went over to her and picked her up. Without questioning she clung to his neck like it was the most natural thing to do and rested against his shoulder, instantly giving into tempting sleep. He walked into his apartment and made way to his room, deciding that his decision had been made right.

Sasuke kicked his room door open, shoving aside all scrolls and weapons on the floor, making a mental note to clean that shit up later. He laid Sakura down on the clean side of his bed and quickly removed all the scrolls on the other side, keeping the lights out so she couldn't see anything if she decided to wake up. He had to move all of his secret things away from her view, the less she knew about him the better. Before he left the room again he watched her sink into mountains of white sheets and blankets crested with his family symbol, if only he could keep her there forever.

Sasuke walked back to his door and picked up the band new scroll that had been placed right before his living area, it had a big 'S' branded on it. _Damnit!_

He sighed before opening the scroll and digesting the content within, leaving a bad taste in his mouth. He was to leave bright and early in the morning for an important mission assigned to him and a few others by the Hokage, what would he tell Sakura? Deciding that it wasn't important right now, and that it couldn't be helped he went to his room to lie down.

Sasuke looked down upon Sakura, who snored slightly too, suggesting that she was indeed in a very deep sleep. She ended up being stretched out across the whole bed, leaving little to no room for him to lay down. He watched her for a few minutes before deciding it was probably best to sleep on the floor.

There weren't words for her, there was nothing to say to describe her, to tell of the ways he felt for her, the ways his heart stopped beating for her. It wasn't love, simply pure infatuation. Infatuation that seeped deep within his souls core, branding it with her. He didn't want to go on any stupid mission, he wanted to stay and lay next to Sakura and keep her from Naruto, he too seemed infatuated with her. He wanted to keep her to himself, and hide her away from all the evils of his secretive world. But the waves of life would pull him away from her, bringing pain along its waves that he knew all too well. He had made his fair share of mistakes, owning up to them was another story.

Sasuke watched as the stars began to fade to nothing, their existence dying as they did. The moon gave the moon a good's night kiss and said farewell to the rest of the world, Sasuke included. Time was ever depthless, there was no real flow to it, and if one wasn't careful enough, time would quickly leave them behind, leaving regrets in its path.

His things were all packed and shoved away in secret compartments. A few more minutes and he would fade just as fast as the stars crashed down, when his light would shine again was still an uncertainty. Sasuke glanced down at Sakura, who, at that every moment, wasn't covered enough by his mountain of blankets, she curled into a knot and clutched at nothing.

He had cleaned up his whole apartment as to hide his life away from her, there was nothing that would remind her of him, that was just the way he wanted this to be. For him to be forgotten was only but a gift to her. When she would awake she would be confused, and wonder where she was and how she came to be there. Maybe her dreams would kiss her for him when he was gone, or maybe he would fly through her dreams and kiss her himself. Sasuke approached the bed gathering the blankets she kicked on the floor in his hands, skillfully covering up her whole being, save for her head. She didn't move, instead she lay still like a brilliant porcelain doll, one that would break by daylight. If she was his doll, surely she would have been broken already.

When the time had come for him to be on his way, a painful sensation found its ugly way back into his body, forewarning him that things wouldn't be alright this time. This pain told him secrets he didn't want to know, it warned him against everything he knew to be true in life and confessed tales that would put Sasuke into a state of cardiac arrest. Looking back to Sakura, then to the sun, in a split second Sasuke decided to leave her a note, explaining the details of his whereabouts. He wouldn't admit to loving her, but he couldn't just leave her to ponder aimlessly as to why he and Naruto ditched her.

The note in turn was short and sweet, wasting no time in getting to the point. It had Sasuke written all over it. He placed the note adjacent to her current sleeping position, then leaned over her incandescent figure, abnormal feelings invading his senses, blinding all reasoning and all judgment. Feeling unsure of himself, he leaned in to steal a sweet kiss from the sleeping beauty, knowing she wouldn't awake like she was supposed to. Suddenly all actions were put to a halt as rustling was heard outside. Quickly he jumped across the room near the window to give one hell of a death glare at the unwelcomed guess.

Two dark figures were in place at the bottom, waiting for him. Upon recognizing them, Sasuke opened the window to leave, but the only things he would truly be leaving behind was _his_ Sakura and a lot of empty regrets. He glanced back to her now rolled over figure and then went into the scorching sun, fading out of existence like the stars. Knowing full well that he wouldn't be seeing her anytime soon.

* * *

Sakura dreamt of red, and felt feelings of uncertainty creep into her heart. Something pulled her away from her sleep hours later. Her eyes fluttered open revealing a world that was very unfamiliar to her. She sat up upon realizing that she wasn't at home, something floated off the blanket that was surrounding her. Letting her curiosity get the better of her she leaned over the side and grabbed the strange article.

It was a small note with her name on it.

Its contents read:

_You won't be seeing much of me for a while,_

_Please, never feel as if I have abandoned your _

_Company, I have not. I will return when the _

_Hands of time permits me to do so. Wait for my return_

_At the outskirts of Konoha's city limits. I will be there. _

_yakusokushiro _

Sakura folded the note, feeling strangely confused. The place didn't seem so foreign after she regained memory as to where she was. This was Sasuke's place, Sasuke's home in which he spent all his free time, and she was in his bed, in which he dreamt about other colors than red. She glanced around at his empty room, the only thing that was there was a large portrait on the wall, and his bed. Nothing was surrounding the rest of his room. There was nothing. Gathering herself up, she wiped the rest of the sleep from her eyes and made her way to his door. In his living room there was a single couch, two lamps and a screen tv. Not that he probably used it. His apartment was horribly bare, and it spoke nothing of who he truly was.

Deciding to let curiosity take over her body, she walloped to his fridge, maybe the contents within would tell her of him. They betrayed nothing; the fridge was dead empty. There wasn't a single thing in there.

His life was really bland, he was horribly shy (or an introvert) that worked at a café bookstore, his house was empty, and his only friend that she knew of was Naruto. Just who the hell was he truly.

Sakura walked to the front door, where another note tab lied, saying 'keep the key.' She looked around till she found it on the kitchen counter, it fit perfectly into his door.

Locking the door behind her, she made her way out of his apartment complex, her confusion never leaving her once.

"she's alone now." The same gruff voice rang from last night, a smile crossing his shark like features.. "should i…" "we wait," the voice interrupted him, silencing the hunger the shark felt. Waiting was always the most difficult thing to do.

* * *

"What took you so long teme?" Naruto landed next to Sasuke, who decided to say nothing. "don't bother him," another voice came. "but.. sensei!" Naruto jumped next to a silver haired man, a man who also wouldn't put up with is bullshit. "Kakashi, how long until we arrive?" the raven spoke, breaking his own silent exterior. "it will be about a week before we even reach the outskirts of kumogakure. It's going to be a while, why?" Kakashi looked to his young pupil. Sasuke turned his head. "Personal reasons." It's not like he was on his period or anything.

"oh I understand!" Naruto jumped next to Sasuke again. "You'll talk to sensei! But I can't have any words?!" he squinted at Sasuke.. "Here's some words." Sasuke put up his middle finger to Naruto and jumped passed him, "oh ha-ha! You aint even slightly funny!" Naruto jumped on his back, knocking them both off balance. "I know what this is about! It's about Sakura huh! You're missing her sweet face!" Naruto pulled at Sasuke's ears and hair. "Get off!" Sasuke spun around, slinging Naruto into the distance.

"Who's Sakura?" Kakashi looked at the both of them. "My one and only lover!" Naruto flew forward again with his eyes closed, hands to his heart and a romantic face, he then stared into Sasuke's eyes. "I just want to hold her." He embraced himself, spinning in circles while gliding across the trees. "Stop!" Sasuke's voice demanded, but it wasn't enough. Naruto smirked. "And kiss her!" he puckered his lips. "I said STOP!" Sasuke jumped closer. "And maybe, if were alone in the dark I could get her to..." fire flew at Naruto, cutting his words short.

"Whoa!." Kakashi laughed, watching as Naruto and Sasuke went back and forth, fighting over this 'Sakura'. She must truly be someone interesting enough to have both of his boys tussling over her. He would have to meet her one day and see for himself.

* * *

**authors note: **  
** oh! sasuke doesnt actually have claws, its just a metaphor for his hands, since ravens dont have hands! A sorry for any misinterpretations!  
**

**kukukuku, i have some pretty interesting ideals boiling in the back of my throat for this story! its gonna get interesting!  
**

**feel free to review! :3 they are much appreaciated!  
**

**if there are any retarded mistakes, point them out! i will fix them! o.o  
**


	4. spider in the windowpane

**_ ummm.. so theres some discrete sexual content in here.  
_**

**_nothing too bad._**

**_enjoi!  
_**

* * *

_Eerie. _

_Eerie was the only word that could be used to describe this place. It sat somewhere lost in between time that didn't really exist, and between time that left the weak behind. For there was never any hospitality for the weak, for those who kneeled to the kings foot and gripped on tightly to the rims of the earth when it spun. _

_The king of all timelessness sat perched upon his thrown of ravens, presiding over all things red. The eternal time keeper itself fretted upon seeing this time-untouched king in all his glory, night, morning and evening. There should have been vultures among dead bodies at this time she knew, but they had all gone in fear of fear itself. She crawled in pathetically across the floor to the mighty thrown where the king sat, gasping for air and spitting nonsensical rhyming words to his deaf ears. Her hand bravely ventured to the foot of his eternal red cloak, grasping and pulling it forward to wipe her blood stained tears. Her blood red lips cracked from beatings he knew, and the last remaining violinist would play a song of sweet sadness at the death of her. _

_He knew she was vibrantly brilliant, and her everlasting beauty wouldn't fade for as long as timelessness continued on. Such things concerned him not. It wasn't the blood spilling from her eyes or ears, nor was it the dying noise she chocked on, it was the brave hand that evoked him into motion, that made him gallantly stand tall._

_His eyes spun down upon her, revealing all she had assumed to be true. There was no room for the color black in his eyes, only red stared on now. Red eyes met green ones only halfway through, entrapping them like all the rest in a red kaleidoscope timelessness. She rose to her feet to meet the raven king, fear leaving her as she did. _

_His raven claw rose to her face and glided all the ways down to her neck, then bosom, arousing colors in every aspect as it did. His other claw ripped the last of her dead cloak off, exposing her for all she truly was and all she truly ever would be. She clutched at her body in embarrassment attempting to hide herself from him, but it was all too late. _

_His cloak fell to the floor in one swift motion, exposing him as well. She gasped at the sight of his body and stumbled all the ways to the floor and back some more. She would admit that he was beautiful underneath that cloak; it was like his body had known no faults. Her thoughts sidetracked as he let out a wicked loud laughter and strode ever-slowly towards her, subtracting all distance in the timelessness rift between them. Shadows danced faster the closer he got; she knew her perfect time would be coming to an end and soon, only her hours of madness waited. He stopped at the very foot of her being and stared down hard at the body he so long desired. She wasn't perfect like him, no; she was torn from ripped black holes that spit out dead stars that hadn't had the slightest clue on how to shine. _

_But he would make her more that perfect, with him she would become beyond a god, all would bow to her everlasting time-untouched beauty. With his last remaining thought and her last desperate whisper he came down like a thief and stole from her what was rightfully his all along. Her screams of anguish and protest could only be heard as pleasant upon reaching his ears. _

"SASSSSSSSSUKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK EEEEEEE!"

Sakura screamed and jolted off the bed, all while slamming really hard into the floor and hurting herself. Her breaths were uneven and nerve racking, making her lungs pound violently against her rib cage. Quickly she scanned the contents of her room searching for the raven boy and felt stupid upon finding no one. Hadn't she felt him touching her? Touching all over her body, leaving hideous welts as he did? If he had, where was he now? Suddenly her alarm clock sounded loudly lulling a screech from inside her inner being, causing the neighbors to get pissy. They banged on their ceiling while yelling something about her being a 'rude bitch', over the small amount of time she lived above them she had gathered that they indeed were not morning people. Sakura whispered a small 'sorry' and gathered herself back on her bed and tried her best to recall what exactly put her in a state of alarm in the first place. Her head was spinning from all the sudden movement, creating waves of nausea as it did. The world had become round in simple terms.

_What the hell just happened? _

She scratched her head, for the life of her she couldn't recall anything about her dream except for the color red, and Sasuke. _Did she really just dream of Sasuke?_

Thinking of him made the color 'red' course through her like fire floating on ice. It was an unfair sensations she was certain only she felt, a sensation that would be with her for as long as he was. She didn't like him, no, to say that she did would be a huge over statement and anyone would be able to realize that. But she certainly could say that she had gotten used to him being around, so to dream of him in the manner she didn't wasn't all the uncommon.

The sound of rain tore her away from her quickly collecting thoughts of him. The windowpane was drenched with tears from the sky, leaving tear streaks the color of midnight as they fell collectively around the earth. Today she would be hopelessly trapped inside the puny cage she dared to called home, no one would come willingly to her side and she wouldn't go to anyone's. Realizing this she signed and laid back against her head board, yawning due to the lack of thought not going on in her head. Today was a Saturday, but it really seemed like a lonely Sunday, today she wouldn't be needed at work so why the hell was she awake again? Her alarm clock screeched once again for the second time today, scaring the hell out of her once more, the damn thing had yet to be turned off she realized.

It was 5:30 a.m., the sun was barely waking up at this time from a long nights rest. She knew she shouldn't be awake yet so she gave into sleep once more and traded consciousness for sweet clouds of non-recognition.

9:30 rolled around before the effects of sleep began to wear off, letting Sakura know that it was truly time to get up…. again. She rubbed her pink head of fuzzy messed-up hair and attempted to lay flat her unruly strands and make it presentable. The sound of rain brought her attention back to the window, letting her know that it was still raining outside, creating a disastrous environment and drowning plants all over the world. She spotted a spider crawling beneath the very bottom of her window ceil to get away from the moist environment outside, he seemed smart enough to avoid Sakura, knowing that if he got closer than what he should it might be the end of his life. The spider would have to go back outside after the rain she decided, but for now it wasn't bothering anyone.

Sakura gathered her legs close to her chest and began pondering silently to herself what the meaning of all things simple was, and how that came to be. Then how things obscured away from simplicity and why they did so.

No answer ever came

_Where were they again?_

Being alone meant that she had a lot of time to contemplate about her life and where it was going, and for some unknown bizarre reason these thoughts always brought her back to them. Her thoughts kept her going to where Naruto was, what he could have possibly been doing for the past week without her and whether or not he remembered her cherry-blossom face and body. He wouldn't know how cold it had become, he wouldn't question the frailness of her arms or hair, he would bring her into a hug and everything would be the same. Then she wondered about Sasuke, about his dark demeanor and raven like tendencies. She couldn't quite place why he was so shy around every other person other than her or Naruto, or why he didn't even want to make an effort at being friends with other people but it was alright to get to know her? She wondered if he was entertaining thoughts of her too, if he would hug her or steal a kiss from her perhaps? He wouldn't kiss her she knew, and he wouldn't act glad to see her, he would shove his hands in his pockets and let her embrace him into her warm bosom like she always did. He wouldn't dare initiate intimacy on his own, not like Naruto would.

They had been gone for the past week already and the only thing that indicated any chance of their return was the sweet little letter Sasuke wrote her before their departure, instructing her on where to be every day. She held it close to hear heart and pretended she could hear him speak the written words to her in his strong reassuring voice, she would pretend that he had actually gifted the card to her instead of abandoning it on the cold bed where she lied alone in search for comfort and warmth. It was surprising and slightly alarming how fast She had become accustomed to him.

Loyalty sang sweet golden songs in her heart that kept her strong, the song would make her wait every single day on the lonely outskirts of Konoha's city limits at a big gate, just like instructed. She would head that way after a full day of playing cat and mouse at the hospital regardless of how cold the weather had become and how dark it was, she would sit and wait for them to return to her like they promised they would. On several occasions she had fallen asleep and missed diner waiting at the bench. She had convinced herself that if she suffered and waited long enough for them they would return to her, but all her effort and golden loyalty had been in vain as neither of them ever showed. Patience wasn't her strongest virtue, even as hard as it was she could silently admit that to herself.

Sakura crawled out of her bed after getting a headache from thinking too hard about them. She looked to the spider who had nestled itself cozily into the very corner of her wet window ceil and wondered if he had anyone he was dying to see and if this cold weather was keeping him from his current source of happiness like it was for her. She knew it was a ridiculous notion because spiders didn't have families, they didn't have loved ones or feelings. All they had was their instincts, and their instincts told them that they needed to mate and eat. That they had to protect themselves above all others, Sakura strangely couldn't feel that way. Spiders to her were so suddenly different and unimportant.

She abandoned the spider to the coziness of his nest and walked into her small window lit run down bathroom and ran the water in the shower so it would get hot. As Christmas approached faster the water in her apartment became surprisingly cold, upsetting her because the water wouldn't stay warm for more than 20 minutes in the shower and it took forever before the water became warm in the first place, she was at a lose-lose situation. Before she left the bathroom she gave a single glance into the mirror and took herself in. She didn't feel beautiful like Ino, or sexy like Tsunade, she felt averagely indifferent towards her pending looks, debating on whether or not she could always live with herself.

Ever since Sakura had been little she knew she wasn't the most beautiful child. She had a rather large forehead that she was constantly teased about, creating insecurities that she still held onto today. She felt that if she grew her hair out to be long and beautiful (despite its ridiculous color) people would accept her as a beautiful girl and no longer just 'that' girl. But the way she felt never came true, because in the end no one really cared about her or her long hair.

She turned away from herself in the mirror feeling apathetic and walked into her kitchen to put on a kettle of water for some morning tea that would make her feel better. Her kitchen was lit by the small rays of light coming in from the large windows in her apartment, everything was a greyish blue color and so cold she could nearly see her breath. The thought of Christmas coming fast overwhelmed her.

From her kitchen she peered into the living room where no one had been since her party for the soon to be Hyuuga couple. Everything was plain as usual, maybe today was a good day to plan gifts.

She tried thinking of all things possible to keep herself busy and from thinking of them, but the thoughts kept coming and going like a train on a circular track, it couldn't be helped. Her thoughts of them only served to sadden her now.

Sakura walked back into the bathroom after a while when she knew the water would be hot. She stripped down to nothing and stepped into the tub water. At first her nerves told her to get out of the water because it was boiling her skin, but soon they gave into relaxation and beckoned her to fall asleep. She let the water kiss her skin ever so sweetly and gave into her first temptation and fell asleep.

A small window brought light into her bathroom and displayed it across ever possible surface. On the other side of the window sat a man who watched the inside of her bathroom.

"She fell asleep," he called out.

No reply ever came, instead the other man simply slipped inside her apartment and began undoing parts in her washing machine. It took him less than 5 minutes and he left. They both left.

Sakura turned in the tub of water after a while and felt the rush of coldness pass between her legs up to her body, rousing her quickly into consciousness. Like always her bath ended in coldness and her rushing to get out quicker than she wanted to. Even though an hour had already managed to elude her, she felt as if her time spent in the water wasn't enough.

Nevertheless, Sakura dried off and walked into her room naked in search of clean things to wear. No one would disturb her today she knew, so there was no reason to walk around in her towel while searching for clothes. She walked over to her dresser and gently pulled open a drawer to expose nothingness, her panty drawer was completely void of anything shy of crumbs. Sakura sighed frustrated-ly and yanked open a drawer below to once again come across a whole lot of nothing, all of her drawers in her oversized dresser were strangely empty. _Where had all her things gone? _She looked around the room and became witness to her gigantic mess of clothes laying everywhere, how had this mess managed to escape her for so long?

She sat her naked bottom on her bed and signed, maybe today should be a laundry kinda day instead of gift planning, it wasn't like she had money to be spending on people anyways. Being an intern meant that pay wasn't always guaranteed, she always had a paycheck, but the size of it was miserable, it was barely enough for her to pay for her place. Eventually she would become a real doctor, not just one shadowing another.

Sakura walked over to a box in her closet and pulled out a nasty old woman's sweater her grandmother had made her. It was large grey-ish yellow and itchy, on top of that it was far from cute, but it would have to do until she got her laundry together. The feeling of her old sweater was ruff against her bare skin, it didn't feel as welcoming as a hug from Naruto would but it had to work. Quickly she gathered her old panties and slipped them back on and put all of her laundry into a basket and kicked it down the hallway. Her old underwear felt stale from sitting off of her body in the cold air, they weren't nasty enough to make her want to wear nothing, and going around bare-boobin was bad enough, bare-bootying would never happen.

She kicked her basket all the ways to her miserable washing machine, leaving a trail of panties and socks behind when they fell out. Her washing machine often chose when it wanted to work and when it didn't want to, it wasn't always the most reasonable machine, but it was far better than buying a new one. Sakura yanked opened the lid and shoved her underwear in, she reached up and tried to start the water.

Her machine made a load clanking noise and rumbled violently around in its place, Sakura looked confused as the water never turned on. "what the hell?" she looked to the side of the machine and checked the cords, everything was in place so why was the machine being bipolar today? Her face changed to that of an annoyed one.. out of all the times the damn thing chose not to work, it had to be a day when it was raining outside. She gathered her panties from the bottom and shoved the lid closed while slamming her fist down on the water button again and received no answer, it wasn't going to work today. Her washing machine was known for being bipolar. Once during the hot summer after Ino and Tenten spent the night she attempted to wash clothing for work the next day and the machine decided not to work, the day after she went to work in clothes that had chocolate stains, receive extremely annoying laughs from Ino the whole day. Then another time during a blizzard that had wiped out nearly all of the power in her house the damn machine was running like no other! No other lights in the house would turn on except for the one above the machine; she slept onto of the washing machine and dryer that night.

Sakura shook the hell out of the machine and kicked it every now and then, it at least needed to know that she was mad at it and that when she got back it was in trouble. Sakura sighed and picked up her clothing baskets and made way for the front door, it was time to make a trip to the complex's new laundry mat. It seemed that since so many people suffered from the bipolar washing machine syndrome, the complex had to compensate and build in a personal laundry mat .

She looked outside to see that rain was still falling violently against the world, this meant that it was to wear her pink rain boots and use her oversized umbrella. She gathered everything and quickly searched from something she could slip over her petite ass and made way out the door.

The cold wind hit her hard, reminding her that today she wasn't supposed to leave her apartment. She cursed silently and fumbled for her key to lock the door. It must have been hidden in the very bottom of nowhere because she couldn't find the thing worth a damn and the more she tried the more she gave up and settled into leaving the place unlocked. It wasn't like she had anything worth stealing other than food.

Sakura gathered her basket up and looked over the stair rail all the ways down to the distant floor, her apartment was on the 5th floor up and there had yet to be and elevator installation. Her journey was a great long one, filled with great trials and hardships, but in the end she knew it was worth it.

After about 15 minutes Sakura kicked open the door to the laundry mat and enveloped herself in its warmth, her body had physically suffered from harsh winds that whipped vulgarly against her skin leaving welts in its wake. She half expected to find no one because sane people and enough sensibility to do their laundry periodically instead of waiting till it was all gone before doing so, but she never felt any more stupider in her life upon seeing someone.

She heard things crash onto the floor as her dynamic entrance startled someone. "Sorry!" Sakura called out to whoever it was, she couldn't see past her basket. "haha, it's okay, I just didn't expect anyone else to come in here today." His smooth voice bounced off the wall and found its way to her ears, forcing her to sit her stuff down. She watched as he straightened his postured and as his long black hair fell gracefully onto his broad shoulders. His eyes caught hers looking guiltily "and you came stomping in at that too." She quickly averted her gaze disabling her from getting a good look at his face, but that didn't stop him. He looked onto her hair that was brilliant in color and quickly realized his plan was working perfectly.

"I wouldn't have kicked the door down if I had known any one would be in here, I figured I was the only one." She spoke quickly to him while messing around with her laundry, revealing that her voice could indeed fail her. Quickly she put her basket on top of a dryer and pried open the washing machine, starting the water for her dirty laundry.

Something was wrong she realized; her detergent was nowhere to be found. Sakura dumped her close out of the basket and revealed that she had indeed forgotten her soap.

"Oh man..." she looked around and rubbed the back of her neck, the boy noticed. "Are you missing something?" he called out to her.

Sakura stood straight, allowing him to glace at her body, " I seemed to have forgotten my laundry soap." She folded her arms and leaned back against the machine while sighing and seeing no other option other than going back. She grabbed her basket and headed back to the door, her only option was to take everything because things were known to be stolen if left unattended in her complex. She wouldn't risk losing her clothes.

"here, use some of mine." The strangers deep voiced startled Sakura into turning around to where he was.

Her eyes went wide as they collided with his, she was so startled upon seeing his face she dropped her basket.

Her hand hesitated unsurely in the wallowing distance but eventually reached out and surfaced across his cheek, letting her know exactly how solid cold he was.

"…Sasuke?" she ran her fingers over his nose and chine slowly before reaching out to touch his loose flowing hair, her heart was pounding so hard against her ribcage. It was like all time had stopped, and she was confused as to why Sasuke's hair had grown so long.

The taller man let out a soft chuckle and shook his head while taking her hand into his, "no, my name isn't Sasuke, its Itachi. It's my pleasure to meet you." He smiled and bowed down slightly to pressed his soft lips to the back of her scared fragile hand, their eyes never broke contact. Sakura felt her cheeks heat up with embarrassment and quickly brought her free hand to cover her mouth. She felt as if she had a fever, and if she didn't get away from this strangely handsome devil that looked like Sasuke she would surely die of a heat stroke. He chuckled lightly against her hand, her skin felt so soft against his lips and she smelled like the pink flower she looked like. Sakura quickly withdrew her hand in bewilderment, she felt so confused. "y….you caught me by surprise." Her breaths sounded awkward upon leaving her lips, she knew he could see her blatant embarrassment, yet he chose not to break their proximity. Maybe he was Naruto's brother instead.

"it wasn't my intention, I just wanted to help you out." He turned from her and picked up her basket of underwear, reaching for her panties and bras so he could put them in the washing machine. She watched as he added his laundry detergent, changed the cycle to delicate and closed the top to the machine so it could give way to its order. She hadn't even realized that he had been messing with her delicates, but later on she would decide that him touching her underwear was just plain creepy and uncomfortable.

"I never caught you name?" he said while turning and leaning on the machine. But his words fell upon deaf ears as Sakura was too busy staring at him to actually hear the words he was saying.

Everything about him was just so unnervingly captivating. He was pale, tall and beautiful, she knew his eyes would capture hers the same way a certain raven boys would when she looked at them. She found it peculiar that he looked almost like Sasuke so it didn't surprise her when she asked him, "do you know a Sasuke?"

Her eyes jolted back and forth in a questioning manner, they were seeking pure honesty from his heart. Mentally he laughed to himself, of course he knew a '_Sasuke', _her little raven prince was his cold and demented little brother, but she would never need to know such information. "Nope," he lied just as easy as he smiled, "never even heard of that name before."

Sakura looked at him in awe while putting her finger to her face, "for some reason I thought you would," he could hear the letdown in her voice as she spoke quietly. Then she suddenly began shuffling for her cellphone in her nonexistent pockets , realizing that she had left it in her apartment. "ummm.. I have a picture of him on my phone. You guys look almost identical, except his hair isn't as long… I really would like to show you him," she giggled. "I just find It so strange how much you look like him," "almost like blood brothers." Itachi smiled with evil intents that would glide straight over her naïve imagination, if only she knew. Her mother should have taught her better when it came to dealing with strangers.

"you're going to be waiting for your laundry for a while right? I can just run up and get my phone really quick to show you, if you don't mind watching my laundry?" She gave Itachi a small questioning smile, trying her best to work her charm on him. "Not at all, take your time." He gave in and leaned against her machine.

Originally it had taken Sakura about 15 minutes to walk down to the laundry mat in the first place, but with her running it took her 20 minutes in total to get from point A to point B then back to point A, if they had elevators it wouldn't have taken so long. She walked back into the laundry room breathing slightly hard from running. In her hand she held a small silver cellphone that she was currently clicking through trying to find the information. "Here!" she held it up and suddenly ran over to Itachi who had made himself comfortable on top of the machine. The picture was of her, Sasuke and Naruto at ichiraku's. Itachi smirked, yep, that sure was his little brother and the annoying kyuubi with her. "uhhh, that's me.." Itachi joked, Sakura looked at him with wide eyes, "hahaha, no but he looks like he could be my doppelganger or something." He gave her a small playful wink, suggesting that everything he was going to say would contain some hint of sarcasm. Sakura caught on quickly and laughed with him, "you could imagine how surprised when I saw you, I really thought you were him. Just, with your hair all grown out and everything." Sakura made hand motions, suggesting that his hair got longer, it made Itachi pull his hair around to the front of his shoulder.

"Our looks are uncanny, if you don't mind me asking, is he your boyfriend?" Itachi played coy and rubbed the back of his neck, acting shy. He noticed Sakura turning several shades of red, obviously embarrassed. "Me and him?!" her voice practically squeaked. Inwardly he chuckled, knowing damn well they weren't together. His little brother had been incapable of loving anyone other than himself ever since he was a small frightened child, ever since that fateful red-mooned night. "It's just that, your such a lovely lady and I wouldn't mind going out with you, if you're free and interested." he sat up and leaned slightly above her, casting playful shadows across her now very confused eyes. She blushed discretely and looked down with great speed.

"I cant." She spoke, "you see, I have to wait for them to get back because we became such good friends and I miss them. If I'm out when they come back how will they know that I was waiting?" her eyes ran back and forth across the floor, "I miss them so bad." "well, maybe some other time, the offer will still stand, even once they get back." He said while getting up off the machine and cupping her face in his hands to make her look up. Her pupils were clouded with confusion, making it difficult to draw the line between what was real and fake.

He leaned his head over hers and veiled her with long black hair, trapping her in his non-genjutsu. "you never gave me your name," his hot breath whispered into her right ear, tickling her nerves all the ways down to the very bottom of her spine. A sun stroked face painted its way across her neutral one, letting him know that he was doing something right.

Afterwards she would decide that he was waaaaaaaay to close to say that they had just met.

"i.. itssss…" she trailed off as the feeling of his nose ran along her outer ear canal and his breath entered her eardrum, making her suddenly forget English language . "hmmmm?" he hummed, as his voice vibrated so did she. She realized that her name was no longer there.

"S…saku..ra" she spoke out in bits and pieces, hoping he would be able to understand her broken language. He quickly moved away from her,

"What a pretty name Sakura, it fits you perfectly." He tilted his head and gave her a close eyed smile.

_What the hell just happened? _Strangely enough she felt like satisfied woman who just had sex in a public place without getting caught, even though all of her clothes were on. _Had he just seduced her name out of her?_ He made his way across the building as his machine sounded, indicating that it had finished. She watched as he picked his basket up and gather his clothes out of the dryer, a strange pang of sadness plagued her heart as he prepared to leave. Then just as soon as the sadness came he turned on his feet and directed his spider web like glace at her,

"well Sakura the lovely, I'll be seeing you around, have a good evening. " he bowed once more and exited the area. Sakura's heart hitched, it felt like Sasuke was leaving her for the second time that week and the notion left her feeling heavily weighed down into the machine. She felt extremely confused as to why god had cursed her with meeting strange beauties who wanted to be near her, surely it was some sort of test of strength, one Sakura really wanted to fail.

"b…bye." She gave a low squeak while girlishly waving her hand near her waist, his presence was gone and the door closed behind him to prove so.

"Itachi huh?" she sighed and leaned back against the machine.

* * *

Sasuke clutched at his rumbling gut and cringed into his meal at the campfire on the very outskirts of Kumogakure. His eyes searched the meal wordlessly making him wonder if he someone, namely Naruto, had messed with his food.

They had arrived earlier than planned and had already begun there mission of infiltration, but that required patience, information gathering was essential he knew, but deep down in his head he wanted nothing more than to just go and kick this guy's ass and go home to Sakura before Naruto could. He knew she would take him and embrace him into all her sweetness the moment she saw him, remind him of why he should just stay with her all the time and protect her from any danger. Kakashi had requested that they bring her buy the shop when they had got back, he was curious to see what she looked like because both Sasuke and Naruto seemed infatuated with her. But of course Sasuke had no intention of taking her to him, he knew that all Kakashi did was dream of young women who he could sink his teeth into and make his icha icha dreams come true. While Sasuke was able to see things this way Naruto was incapable and agreed instantly to bring her for a date once they got back, it pissed Sasuke off to no end when he explained her detail to detail to their older sensei. Sure, Kakashi was harmless enough and was nothing but a pleasant gentleman to women, but it didn't stop those sick thoughts from crossing his mind, he is a man after all.

Once Sasuke's gut clenched again his mind wondered to where she was, his gut told him that something was going down somewhere that involved him, it just forgot to say what that something was. It was a strange feeling to eat to, it told him that his food was rotten, and that he should pay more attention to what he was feeling. But in order for him to be as strong as he needed to be he pushed the feeling aside and ingested the ramen Naruto had made for all of them, that shit probably was rotten if Naruto was responsible.

The woods behind both Naruto and Sasuke cracked making them respond with quickness, both of them yanked out a kunai and got into the closes stance they could. "Whoa whoa," a familiar voice rang through the woods. "nice to know your both on guard," their sensei's chuckling voice came. He was proud of them to say at least. Naruto slouched back down and folded his arms in a pouting manner, "oh it's just you Kakashi-sensei." Him grimaced. Kakashi looked to him while putting his hand to his heart. "ouch, that hurts." He tried to act fragile, but they knew otherwise.

He came and sat next to Sasuke and Naruto on the ground and grabbed a cup of ramen, "what did you find?" Naruto suddenly turned to him eagerly awaiting the information. "His name is Sato Tora, he lives in the heart of the capital with two of his brothers, some woman told me that he's responsible for the sale and trade of kidnapped genin who become trained to fight to the death in chicken matches." Kakashi grabbed a set of chopsticks and broke them, "that bastards going down when I get my hands on him! believe it!" Naruto shouted and shoved another set of noodles in his throat. "Calm down kyuubi boy, at midnight we're going to head for the tavern where I agreed to meet this woman. She's risking a lot, but she's going to take us to Sato, she knows his exact location." Kakashi leaned back into the tree. Sasuke looked suspicious at him for a slight moment, "if she's risking a lot by taking us there then why is she helping us at all? What did you do?" he propped himself up on his elbows, catching both Kakashi and Naruto's attention, Kakashi leaned forward. "yea sensei? What did you do?" Naruto squaked in a high pitched tone and furrowed his brows while turning to Kakashi, glaring at him the same way Sasuke was. Although Sasuke's glares would always go unrivaled. Kakashi smiled under his mask, "it'" He smiled, all proud of himself. Naruto burst out into laugher, even Sasuke chuckled. "I don't believe that shit for one freakin second!" Naruto pointed at him. "what did you do? trade Konoha's top secrets or something?" he said while clutching onto his now-in-pain side, his laughter never stopped. Kakashi looked offended but then his sighed and pulled out his little porn book. "believe what you want, I already gave you my answer." He leaned against the tree and crossed his legs. Naruto looked at Sasuke who shared his glance back, they both looked equally stuck in disbelief, "ya right! Wake me at midnight." Naruto chuckled one last time and rolled over to face the bright fire, knocking down 7 empty cups of ramen as he did. "you clumsy little bastard," Sasuke kicked him in the butt.

Sasuke picked at the captivating fire with a stick, contemplating the true meaning of life and whether or not it was worth fighting for. In the end he realized that he had always been fighting a war he knew nothing about, and while it paid him greatly it didn't satisfy that empty void he had been feeling in his life since he was a child. It didn't matter how hard he tried to fill the empty abyss, nothing ever worked. It would forever feel empty and there was no other way to escape the loneliness that threatened his very existence. It was best that his problems were eternal because others would surely worry about him if they truly knew what was going on inside. He didn't want his old sensei or Naruto to worry their pretty little heads about him, and he especially didn't want Sakura to find out about any of his problems. She would be entirely too delicate to deal with such trauma. He would break her.

The sound of Naruto snoring brought him away from his lonely thoughts.

It had already been an hour or so since Naruto started to snore, Sasuke took this as an opportunity to truthfully question his sensei about his current information. Kakashi looked at him as if already knowing that he was itching to start a conversation, Sasuke took the chance. , "seriously, what did you do?" his voice was low enough to where the idiot wouldn't be disturbed. "hmmm?" Kakashi looked at him with concentrating eyes. "what did you trade with that girl?" "why are you so persistent Sasuke? I already told you." Already feeling bored with the conversation, Kakashi turned back to his book. "I don't believe that either, your too lazy to make love with someone." Sasuke folded his arms in a pouting, disbelieving manner. Kakashi signed in deeply and agitatedly, _was Sasuke really interested in talking about love now?_ "Your wrong little Uchiha," Kakashi peered back from his book and into Sasuke's eyes, " I didn't make love to her," he spoke blankly. Sasuke sat up and looked even more confused, "then what?" his glare hardened onto his old sensei's face. "We had sex, there's a difference between making love and having sex. One actually requires feelings, the only other feeling you need for sex is pleasure.. well and necessity, that's what it's based on. Don't you know that already?" his eye questioned Sasuke, who blushed slightly and shook his head.

He didn't want to think about the difference between making love and having sex, for him the lines were all so blurred and obscure that making love and sex looked exactly like the same thing. There had never been a definite difference between the two and he didn't want to question the difference now, there was no need for such things. He noticed that Kakashi had returned back to his book and was reading now in peace. The man was barely thirty; it was natural for people of his age to continue to have sex. Sasuke knew it would be the same for him, if he continued the life he was doing now. Thinking about it made him a little sad, where did Sakura stand in all of this? Where was she supposed to stand?

It's not like they were together or ever would be, but the thought of being with Sakura was the most overwhelming, most magnificent feeling any man could ever hope to possess. He wanted her more that he wanted to breathe.

_When had things become like this? _He constantly kept asking himself, when did his feelings for her evolve to such a magnitude? His feelings weren't fake, they weren't lust he knew, he felt the same love for her he had for his mother and more. She was just as sweet, warm and inviting like her, and wasn't there a saying that little boys really marry their mothers, and little girls really marry their fathers?

Whoa!

Sasuke stopped his train of thinking,

Marriage?

When had he even considered thinking of that, Sakura wasn't _that _special, was she? Of course she was, that's why she deserved better, she would need a husband that would be able to be there 24/7, and that person wasn't Sasuke, he could admit that to himself even as the pain set into his heart. She came to mean so much to him in a short amount of time, and the small distance between them now kept him constantly referring back to the way her warm body felt against his as they greeted and said goodbye to each other. It wasn't fair that he was this far from her now, what would she think of his absence? She had awoken alone in his bed where he left the note for her, but whether or not she got it and understood was a different story. Would she be waiting for him like he asked her to? Or would she disregard everything in the letter and be done with him? No, she was too much like his mother to abandon him now. She would be there waiting every day for his return, he should never have asked her to do such a thing, these type of missions take weeks, and she would be there all alone. Waiting for him.

"Hey," Kakashi shook him. "Were you asleep?" his question directed down to the now startled raven. Sasuke blinked at him, exactly when was it that he closed his eyes? "No," he spoke, sounding slightly confused himself, "you sure? You've been quiet for the last 4 hours, well in any case it's time to go.."

The last 4 hours? But he had just barely talked to Kakashi about sex, there was no way 4 hours could have passed already, he hadn't been thinking that much.

Sasuke heard Naruto groan, and something about 'go away mom'. Of course his lazy ass didn't want to get up; it was in the middle of the freaking night for Christ's sake. But eventually his groans of protest subsided and he gave way to consciousness, "oi, Kakashi," Naruto said as he swayed while sitting up, "get ready, we leave in 3 minutes.." Kakashi put the fire out and began packing the pot of water into a scroll. "Why that long?" Naruto rubbed his head. Kakashi looked confused for a slight second then smiled at him, making the noise "sssssssss".

"urg!" Sasuke felt his bladder react and both him and Naruto clutched at their junk below and headed out into the forest to relieve themselves. Kakashi just laughed, that trick never stopped working on them, even now that they were close to jonin. He knew that each time both of them woke up the first thing they both needed to do was pee, he learned that after having to stop several times before on important missions so they could take care of their bladder problems, the trick came in handy ever since then.

Naruto jumped out into the first clearing he got and head behind a tree, Sasuke followed knowing that the area was filled with poison ivy and that Naruto was pretty good at tracking down perfect places to pee. He heard Naruto's pants unzip and the sound of liquid hitting the tree. He followed suit and unzipped his pants, peeing as well.

"Hey teme, mines still bigger!" Naruto let out an annoying laugh; it irked Sasuke making him glance over to the boy who was laughing right at him. "Yea right dobe, in your dreams maybe... "He turned back to the tree to mind his business, then he noticed Naruto's laughter stopping, "oh yea! Dream about this!" Naruto aimed at him and got pee all over Sasuke's leg and shoes. Sasuke clutched at his junk as Naruto's nasty liquids hit him. "YOU'RE FUCKING DEAD!" he screamed while zipping up and chasing Naruto off into the distance. That little bastard really just peed on him. "You've been marked with the curse!" Naruto laughed and jumped into the trees, "now little Naruto's are going to grow out of your leg and constantly want ramen!" he was hysterical, but once a kunai flew past him and took his head band off it wasn't funny anymore. Sasuke was livid and Naruto only wanted to piss him off more.. In believing so he jumped into midair and mooned Sasuke his shiny pink ass, the Uchiha became even more furious just as Naruto had planned. "haha! Like that?!" he smacked his ass and continued to fly through midair. But his fun came to a stop as he collided directly into Kakashi's stone chest. "Sensei!" Naruto yelped and tried to get out of his sensei's death grip, "Naruuuutoooooooooooo!" Sasuke yelled as he approached, standing directly behind them. Naruto gulped and looked back at Sasuke, whose sharingan was spinning furiously at him.

Naruto chuckled sheepishly as Sasuke approached him slowly. "oh hey …S…asu..ke, h..how have you b..been? it's been a wh.. while," he did his best to smile up at Sasuke, but it wouldn't work…

From a distance you could hear the sound of someone screaming and birds taking off in fear of whatever was causing that noise.

They had to wait for Sasuke to get cleaned off and change his clothes before they headed out, it wouldn't be wise to let the enemy smell them before they even saw them. Team Kakashi was currently twenty minutes behind schedule and would be late in meeting his contact with information. Since it was decided that it was Naruto's fault he got stuck carrying all of the bags. Kakashi wasn't too worried about being late, he knew she would still be there, she had practically begged to see him again tonight, and like a good gentleman he couldn't say no.

Eventually Sasuke emerged from the forest in new clothing, he threw the pissed on ones at Naruto, they were soaking wet. "that goes in your bag dobe because this is your fault." He looked pissed. "yea yea!" Naruto gave him a closed eye glare that projected his current annoyance towards the raven. It had been a long annoying week together between the two, but in the end they were brothers, and brothers always stick together.

They were ten minutes late arriving to the designated spot. Naruto looked around and didn't see anybody, feeling bored he turned to Sasuke and put his hands behind his head. "ten bucks says that she some ugly old hag, that's the only reason kaka-sensei was able to sleep with her." He giggled and whispered to Sasuke, who was highly amused. "I'm not betting against that." Sasuke smirked and remembered Kakashi's words from earlier.

Kakashi's eyebrow twitched, those little bastards were always talking shit, hadn't he raised them better? Then he thought back to how he was the one that introduced them both to porn and decided against that notion, he was a terrible father -_-.

Naruto looked around again, there still wasn't anyone, "what gives? We weren't _that _late." He squinted, "she left because were all becoming you sensei! Late and lazy!" Naruto squawked and walked passed Sasuke. "Keep pushing it Naruto and you're going to feel 5000 years of death instead of 1000." Naruto clenched at his butt and made a face while Kakashi walked to a wall at the end of a rundown tavern, he knocked on the wall 4 times and turned to wait. "Ikuma?" a girl came around the corner shyly.

Both Naruto and Sasuke's jaw dropped to the floor as a lean woman with big breast, a small waist and a big ass rounded the corner and latched herself to their sensei, he wasn't lying after all.

"I thought you weren't going to come after all." She said in an innocent voice and looked up at him with cute puppy eyes while drawing swirls on his chest.

Naruto looked at Sasuke, "should have betted against me, you would have one." He nudged Sasuke, "seriously." Sasuke nudged him back.

It was embarrassing watching their sensei sweet talk some bimbo, embarrassing her and telling her things they both knew were lies, like his name for instance. "This is Tetsuya and Naoki" Kakashi gestured to both of his boys, they didn't even realize he was still talking. "Aren't we going to go somewhere first?" she didn't even regard Sasuke or Naruto; instead she just stayed attached to Kakashi, who looked vaguely annoyed at his current situation. She tried to pull down his mask once more, "no,… not now." He moved her hands away, "after you show me where Sato Tora is then I'm all yours for the whole night." both Naruto and Sasuke blushed. Yep, this defiantly was embarrassing.

It took them 3 hours via train to get to the weird hideout that their target kept himself hidden in, Sasuke stood in the shadows and waited for Kakashi's signal to penetrate the building, it was a perfect time, since most people would be a sleep at this time in the morning.

Kakashi had already disposed of the girl with promises of returning later that morning, but business came first, and it was about time they got their mission over with.

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**yea, feel free to review! **

**umm.. theres spelling errors in here. if you find them, please point them out! **


	5. genin rescue

**another chap****ter folks, :3 okay so i learned a very important lesson about saving my edited work. i actually had this chapter done some time last week, but i edited it all in one sitting without saving (my biggest mistake ever!) and when i went to save in the end the damn thing logged me out and didnt save anything. FML!  
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**are you serious? i was so pissed that i didnt even want to touch the story again and just upload it as it was, but it had so many damn spelling errors and things that i had missed, plus i kept putting taro sato instead of Sato Tora..  
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**in the end i went through it again, but that doesnt mean its perfect. just bare with it. i have great plans! you better believe it!  
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**so um.. enjoi this !  
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Genin rescue

They traveled by the light of the moon to the empty guarded mansion, all while the sound of cries and screams escaped desperate genin's mouths, leaving a miserable trail of agony on its way to the raven's ears. What could have happened to these poor children in such a short amount of time that would lull such a noise from their vocals? What was truly going on?

He knew that those genin were being taught to fight like angry cocks against one another to the death in suicide chicken matches for money, but the noise that escaped the fortress like mansions made Sasuke's skin run pale white. The noise made the blood in his veins run cold like a snakes blood, each sweat drop that fell from his pours left lines of cold chilled skin in which ran down his back, forcing the hair on his neck to stand up.

In short it wasn't pleasant, and nothing was more un-assuring than displeasure.

Kakashi's tapped a faint hand on his back muscle causing it to tense up, his eyes told Sasuke that there was no longer any time to stall, it was time to enter the mansion. Naruto was stationed on the other side, just waiting for his chance to take someone down. Naruto had been born eager, and Sasuke knew he would die that way too. Each time he thought about it he couldn't help but to feel jealous of Naruto when he was always just so damn ready to charge in first, even Kakashi had learned to push the feeling of never-ending-nervousness panic down so deep that he had nearly forgotten about it all together, eventually one forgot the nervousness, that came along with being a ninja. But for Sasuke, the never ending nervous feelings never left, it haunted him daily like a plague on a good man's tongue. He constantly thought about the day when he would leave for a mission and the night when he wouldn't return. It was terrifying to know that everything you've put your life into could be over with one simple mission. Ninjas were different from normal people, they didnt have time to think twice or feel regret.

The light shined in his eyes distracting him from his current nervous panic, the voice of Kakashi reenforced their need to leave. "You ok?" Kakashi whispered strongly to Sasuke in a tone that almost wasn't audible. Sasuke's eyes searched his scarecrow face franticly, everything Kakashi needed to know would come from the stories Sasuke's eyes told. "Then let's go."

It took them less than 3 minutes to infiltrate the building silently, Naruto through the back, Kakashi stationed outside, and Sasuke through the left side. Instantly he could see two men leaning on the outside of a door with what looked like women chained up on the inside, more was going on here than they had all intentionally thought. One of the women was sitting in a leather bra and underwear with chains binding her legs and hands and a gag in her mouth, tears stained her cheeks. It wasn't long before her doe-like-dead eyes found Sasuke's cold uncaring ones through all the blank darkness, she began pleading silently for him to end it all in anyway possible, but he was here for other reasons, her sadness couldn't distract him now. With that in mind he made his way along the shadows down the never ending hallway to a dark lit stairwell with a locked gate leading underground to an unknown coldness, the mansion had been made fairly simple in design and even with all of the protection that lined the walls at night it wasn't enough to stop Sasuke. Everything had been stupidly simple.

Quietly he held his hand to the radio and whispered a faint signal to Kakashi while his eyes caught sight of Naruto coming along the walls only to stop right beside him.

"Sasuke," Naruto's voice came in quiet and demanding to Sasuke's deaf ears, earning the kyuubi-boy his full attention. Naruto gestured upwards with his thumb signaling for Sasuke to look. His coal black eyes climbed the dirty wall upwards til it reached the dark ceiling, upwards in a dark area hung a key attached to a string. "could they be anymore stupid and obvious?" Naruto questioned while flashing a toothy grin at him. "I noticed it when I first passed here, when I came back you were already here." He smiled. "Its probably a trap of some sorts," Sasuke said while observing the string. "I figured that too, that's why I followed that entire string back to one of the rooms." Naruto pointed a trail left from the string down the hallway to one of the rooms that had guards stationed on the outside of it. Why hadn't Sasuke noticed that string on his way here first? And when the hell did Naruto became so logical and observant? Sasuke's crow heart pounded violently hard against his ribcage with such an intense jealously, Naruto was actually becoming a decent ninja. He was smart, fast, strong, and he thought on his feet instantly when the situation called for it. He wouldn't hesitate to do what he knew was right and would question all things wrong. Naruto wasn't just that little genin that he met several years ago anymore when he felt annoyed to have been teamed up with him, he was Sasuke's equal now. He was his brother. "Hey," Naruto knocked him on the head. "earth to teme," "yea…." Sasuke looked at him. "down that way in the room is where I believe Sato Tora is, theres something more going on here than just the selling of genin." He scratched his bright brilliantly colored hair. "down that way is a room with women chained up and gaged, their probably slaves used for trafficking or something," the raven informed him causing the radiant one to furrow his brows and squint, "that's low, even for these bastards." Naruto stated while feeling uneasy. "Well I already informed Kakashi on our position, did you see what that string was attached to?"

Naruto looked back down the dark creepy hallway that lead to an even darker room. "I couldn't get a good look, there so many other wires all around the place, and waaaaaay~ too many people guarding the place. Shit, what the hell is he so afraid of?." Sasuke looked back up to the key, "I'm sure this is where their keeping the genin. We need to get that key." Suddenly Kakashi was very visible to them. "it probably triggers some kind of alarm, there is no way out of getting caught in this mission, but our mission isn't about stealth, its about the rescue of these children. The more guards we take out beforehand the better." the scarecrow glace grimly at them both in the eyes simultaneously. Suddenly a loud alarm rang through the place causing all three of them to look panicked and instantly get on guard. "I don't understand, we didn't touch the key?!" Naruto jumped up and snatched the key out of place. At least ten guards were running from both directions to them, "we'll distract them, you get those kids outta here!" Kakashi yelled to Naruto and yanked Sasuke along.

The scarecrow collided with four guards instantly, displaying a great show of brute strength and undefiled courage. Sasuke on the other hand flew above everyone like the crow he truly was down the hall to Sato's evil room. Guns blared at him in an attempt to poorly protect Sato from Sasuke, but it wasn't enough to match the speed in which the crow soared. Flying directly above everyone, His dark beaded eyes were able to land directly on Sato and the woman who he knew as Kakashi's contact. _Little slut, s__he must have told him about us coming here. _The feeling of betrayal singed him like a fresh burn across the face, it hurt so bad it caused him to lite up his chidori.

Sato shoved the woman in Sasuke's direction, halting the flow of chakra to his hand in an attempt to not hurt the traitor. In that very moment, Sasuke noticed three other men come out of the shadows with more guns, as they did two more blocked the exit of the door, successfully trapping a crow in a cage. _A fucking ambush! _He thought furiously at himself, feeling stupid for approaching the room now.

"Uchiha Sasuke, Uzumaki Naruto, and Hatake Kakashi. You really thought you could come here and stop me?" the man bellowed out a wicked laughter from the very pit of his being, shaking the very foundation in which Sasuke stood. He yanked Kakashi's contact off the floor and held her to him by her hair, earning the most heinous of protests from her. "my little rat here told me of your guys whereabouts, and it wasn't like I didn't know you weren't coming, thanks to my special little contacts inside the Hokage's tower."

Sasuke's heart wrenched hard against his chest at the information he just heard. _A spy inside the Hokage's tower? _He knew that Sato was in charge of a large criminal organization, but to have spies stationed on the inside of the tower was a ridiculous notion. Ninjas of Konoha were sworn to an oath of loyalty and secrecy. How was it even possible that there was a spy inside the tower.

"You seem surprised young Uchiha," the man laughed, upsetting the very core of Sasuke's being. "I'm a very powerful warlord in these areas, it shouldn't be surprising that i have contacts everywhere." he bellowed. "You're not a warlord! You're a criminal! A gang leader whose going to die here by my hands!" Sasuke called out while releasing a string of hand signs and belching out fire from his lips, burning the rims of them as he did. The men scattered across the room as Sasuke's aim had no name written on it. all the walls and floors set on fire with the need to smoke everyone out. The crow whipped back to the two by the door and thrashed one of their hands to the ground forcing him to release the gun. It was in that very moment that Kakashi burst in through the door and single-handedly took out two behind Sato. His eyes wandered to his contact with deep disdain, she had smoothly betrayed him.

* * *

Naruto ran down cold metal stairs with a clank to the dark eerie room with a creepy swinging light overhead. Small children reached out to him in an attempt to grab a hold of his pants legs. They were laying in the bottom of locked cages like animals about to be pouched in some sort of uncomfortable liquid,some of them looked like they were just plain injured and starving to death. The sight didn't bode well with Naruto at all. "hold on, ill get you all out of there." he pressed the key to the inside of the lock and watched as it gave way to the floor. A twelve year old girl with blond hair crawled out of the cage onto the floor with a desperate need to breath, after so she ceased to move again.

11 genin minus the girl that had just died were found. Just as instructed. They all stared at him. "I'm Naruto Uzumaki, the next Hokage. I'm here to rescue you all on the behalf of Konoha, i'll take you to safety. Is anyone injured?" he questioned the unknown while scanning the group of children. 7 boys and 4 girls remained and all the boys looked hard and angry while the girls looked mostly scared and upset. "we're all fine, except for Shirune," one boy pointed back to the blonde girl. "she got injured in a fight against a chunin in a match and never received medical attention, that's how she died." Naruto looked back to the entrance where the young girl laid, he would take her with them even though she had just died, surely enough her parents would want the body back.

"his leg is on the verge of being broken, the bone was severely fractured in his last match as well, and he never received medical attention." The same boy pointed out. "Hiroko," the boy with the injured leg warned, and then looked to Naruto, "I can walk still, I wont be a burden." His will and determination reminded Naruto of himself when he was a just a baby genin. The boy was so rugged looking with light brown hair and eyes that had been to hell and back, all the kids including the girls had a short ear length hair, all of their hair spiked up on their heads. "im glad you can walk, here." Naruto said while holding out a soldier pill for the boy, "It wont ease the pain, but it will give you energy, were escaping here tonight." He said. "anyone else feeling weak?" he looked around and watched as all the children put their hands up.

He sighed and scratched the back of his head, handing out the last of his soldier pills to the genin. He walked over to the door and picked up the blond girl, tying her to his back with extra rope.

Upstairs and down the hall way was set on fire, courtesy of Sasuke he was sure. Women with chains hanging from them were being dragged down the hallway while screaming in protest, they must have been what Sasuke was talking about. As soon as the thought passed from sight Sasuke flew from the doors and slammed into the wall harshly, Kakashi not too soon after him. Naruto ran over, "what took you so long dobe," Sasuke croaked out a small chuckle while glancing up with a single eye, "one of the girls is dead," Naruto gestured to his back. "I'm taking her with us." "not now!" Sasuke shoved him out of the way as a large hand whipped out of the room and smacked in their direction. Turns out that Sato was a highly skilled ninja on his own accord, he had no master and never attended any academy, and he was an accomplished summoner too, summoning a gigantic human like chakra monster that neither Kakashi nor Sasuke could name.

"what the fuck is that thing?!" Naruto shouted. "not sure! It's a summoning!" Sasuke yelled back! "get those genin to safety!" Kakashi screamed from across the other way, Naruto nodded in understanding and ran for it.

* * *

At the entrance of the building stood a man who had the same stature as Zabuza Momochi, his very demeanor intimidated nearly half of the genin to death.

"Where the hell do you think your going?!" he grinned and laughed at Naruto and the children, Naruto felt a girl clench at his pants leg in the fear of fear itself. He looked back at all the genin as if time had stopped for them, for him to make a decision. Their faces were dirty and spaced as if someone had shown them all the horrors this world held, it was in that moment that he knew what needed to be done.

"here," Naruto quickly handed the blonde girl to the frightened girl. "please take care of her body, I'll lure him from the door and you guys run outside and wait for me!" he slipped her lifeless for into the small fragile hands of the tending genin and stepped forward with a zealous determination to win. "everybody, please wait for me outside, this wont take long."

Naruto crouched into a fighting stance as the children made there way to a different exit opposite of the big bad wolf.

"wait!"

One of the boys stood next to Naruto, "Im still strong enough to fight." He got into a stance with his fist properly balled up, it was the same boy who informed him about all the injured students. His body was pathetically skinny in demeanor and his fist were small and tight. His body housed what looked like thousands of little scratches, but his determinations shone through his eyes, telling Naruto that he would be fine despite the physical tiredness he probably felt. "alright, follow my lead." Naruto smiled at him. "right!" the boy smiled back.

Naruto charged forward at the man "COME AND GET IT!"

* * *

Sasuke flew through the air onto the other side of the beast as Kakashi summoned a crackling chidori of his own. "now!" he yelled as Sasuke quickly summoned chidori as well. The room crackled with lightening blue buzzes that ripped air, sending the beast hurdling downwards as both Kakashi and Sasuke rammed one thousand birds into its side simultaneously. The room was completely emerged into fire now and it was getting insanely hotter as each agonizing second took a new breathe and passed by.

Sato Tora spiraled through the air sending kunais in the direction of team 7, his summoning had failed him, and now it was up to strength and wits alone to win. Both men dodged effortlessly as if it was encoded in them to evade by nature. Parts of charred wood fell down onto the burning carpet creating a cage like structure from the back window to a door that had gone by as unnoticed the whole time. Sasuke noticed that the woman had escaped to what he assumed she thought was safety already, her very essence had disappeared beyond time itself.

Sato came ragging at Sasuke in a spiral manner as what seemed like a thousand kicks presented its self to his ribcage. The pressure from the kicks combined with the smoke in the room made it difficult for Sasuke to think clearly and one swift kick to the side and jaw sent him back through a wall to the other side of hell. From here on in it only got hotter.

The crow landed roughly on the edge of a hot metal desk that had been turned sideways slightly, the impact beckoned for streams of blood from some unknown surface on his body. It was hard to get up once he slipped from the desk into a pile of burning rubbish that had descended from the ceiling due to the smoke and lack of friction. His body ached with the need for fresh air and told him to get out a quick as humanly possible. But it was all in vain as soon as burning wood from the ceiling came down upon him with such a great force that he couldn't even think twice about anything. He put his arms up to cover his face as fast as he could, the pain from that very moment was what he thought would do him in. Sato Tora had bested him, and in the end there would be no time for the king of timelessness to regret anything. He gave way to a black abyss called unconscious, all awareness was gone from there on out.

Kakashi watched as Tora jumped out a burning window and landed on the plateau of crooked ground outside of his mansion. "Sasuke!" he jumped through the burning building to his pupil who was buried beneath a pile of burning rubbish. Embers trickled up at Kakashi's face, threatening and antagonizing him as if they were trying to keep Sasuke all to themselves. Kakashi kicked the wood from over his slowly suffocating raven student, revealing scorched and charred arms that protected a porcelain glass face. Quickly Kakashi grabbed him up into his arms and ran for it. The rest of the room fell down the moment they escaped to the safety of rest-of-the-burning building. Down below he could see Naruto and some little kid taking on what looked like a giant. Or Zabuza, whichever came first.

Naruto was relieved when Kakashi appeared next to him, but quickly become stressed upon seeing Sasuke in a passed out state. "ill be back!" Kakashi poofed outside to where the children where, scaring them them all into a panic. One pulled a kunai off the floor and got into a stance, ready to defined the rest of his pathetic life. "wait! I'm not the bad guy, my student is dying." He said as he turned to Sasuke who had stopped breathing a while ago.

He pumped his chest several times in an effort to get his smothered heart beating again and eventually turned to mouth to mouth, pulling down his mask in a last attempt to save a crow. Sasuke coughed up puffs of black smoke without waking a single time, his heart gave way to rhythm and he was alive once more. The very second he started breathing regularly Kakashi turned to get back to Naruto and the small genin who were facing the reincarnation of Zabuza. "can you watch him?" he looked up to the girls who had gathered around the raven. They didn't speak, but instead nodded their heads in understanding.

"RASENGAN!"

Naruto blasted streams of spiraling chakra from his hand into the mans twisted stomach, sending him flying right out the front door landing spirally onto the ground in a crack. Kakashi jumped out of the way right as he was about to enter the building for a second time, he looked astonished at the current commotion. The genin and Naruto came running out to meet with everyone else in that very moment. "I don't think he will get up anytime soon." Naruto looked at Kakashi who nodded in agreement. "wheres Sasuk…" Naruto trailed off as he ran to Sasuke's side.

"What happened to his arms?" Naruto gathered up Sasuke quickly into his warm embrace, holding onto him for the thought of dear life itself. His body felt cold in every aspect and heavy compared to its usual light-feather-like feeling. "Sasuke?" Naruto's deep blue pool eyes search his pale dirty face frantically, searching for any signs of life. "s…SASUKE!" tears threatened to spill from the very tip of his pain filled azure worlds. "Naruto, he's alright, just unconscious for now. Don't worry. " Kakashi placed a sympathetic hand on Naruto's shoulder in an attempt to sooth him. "come on, Sato Tora got away and we need to head back to Konoha. Once we get on our way we can put something on his arms. He will wake up, trust me. You know he's incapable of dying this quickly" with that Kakashi turned to the frightened children to address them, "we're going to back to Konoha, the village hidden in the leaves. From there you all will be taken care of medically then sent back to your respectful village. If you have anything left here in this burning rubbish you should gather it up now before it catches aflame." He turned to Naruto. "can you get Sasuke Naruto?" Kakashi called out to him. "I cant, I was going to carry that girl back." Naruto got up from his current spot of asphyxiation and walked over to the dead girl, her body was pale and cold already.

"Naruto, there's no way we can take her with us," Kakashi looked at him. "what? what about her parents? They will want a funeral for her!" "you can't consider their feelings in a situation like this, even though it took us less time to get here than planned you have to consider the fact of how many genin are injured, within a day or two she will began to smell, by the time we arrive to the village her body will already be decomposing, rigor mortis will have already set in, its impossible. We can't risk getting everyone else sick for the sake of her family." Kakashi spoke in a low sympathetic tone while slowly gaining the courage to gaze into Naruto's wet pools of deep blue pain, struggles with sadness were held within them, struggles that would never leave.

"Tonight she we can bury her body and lay her soul to rest if that makes you feel better, but for now we need to get away from this burning building." Kakashi spoke and turned to leave the area.

It didn't take much to make Naruto understand, but he couldn't help but feeling as if there was something else that could have been done, even when he knew there wasn't. Some things could never be changed.

Quickly he gathered her body up as Kakashi got Sasuke and they emerged into the mercy of the forest, they wouldn't take the train nor the city to head back.

* * *

It had taken them 4 hours to get to the outskirts of the village. "here, we can bury her here." Kakashi place a slowly waking Sasuke down by a rock. "ill get a fire going,"

Sasuke's eyes fluttered slowly against his cheeks until they opened, revealing a bright arrangement of colors before him, telling him that these colors were warm. In the short distance he could hear small voices whisper 'he's awake', and slowly began wondering what happened and where he was.

"Here mister." Another voice came in slow to his eardrums. "drink this, its from your sensei." A bottle of some sorts was pressed to his lips and a small cold hand was lifting his head up by the nape of his neck. The cold liquid slid down his throat scorching everything it touched, the taste was burlesque in comparison to a real taste and it forced him to sit up quickly. He winced at an unknown pain and spit the liquid onto the floor, swatting the hand away from his neck, glancing over at the youth who had attempted to feed him said liquid. The boy was dirty and unkempt looking, but Sasuke couldn't imagine himself looking any different right now.

"Wheres Kakashi and Naruto?" his eyes wandered the whole camp ground and found nothing of theirs.

"They went to bury one of the girls who died, look, you really have to drink this. Your teacher said it would help with the pain in your arms." The boy pointed. _Arms? My arms? _Pain settled itself across Sasuke's arms as soon as he suddenly became aware of them, they had been scorched in the fire causing the skin to rise and wrinkle in blistering pain. "it's medicine mister, from your teacher." Bravely enough, the boy put his hand back on Sasuke's neck and pressed the bottle to his lips, Sasuke held his breath and let the liquid slide down his throat with the hopes that whatever effect it was going to have on him would happen soon. Once all the medicine was gone the boy moved the bottle and grabbed something else. "Here, he also had this." He placed two cold packs onto Sasuke's arms. "he said that there's a numbing agent coated on the back of these, so in a minute or so you won't be able to use your arms, but you won't feel the pain. "

"numb?" Sasuke said more or less to himself,

"Noriko!" the boy leaned up and called out to a girl with orange-yellow hair, "you can feed him now." Sasuke's heart jumped at the thought of being fed by another person, it felt weird enough being taken care of by other people, especially people years younger than him, but being fed by some one was a whole different story.

A skinny girl wobbled like a hurt rabbit over to him with a cup of noodles and chopsticks in hand, his belly growled with the need of food the closer she got to him. "Shinji," she looked at the other boy who had given Sasuke the medicine as if to tell him he wasn't needed anymore. With one swift motion she keeled down next to Sasuke and put some noodles in his mouth. The whole while she was there he couldnt help but to think that her eyes were bright and green just like Sakura's.

_Sakura. _

Her name felt so foreign now, like it was too precious to come from a retched tongue like his. His need to see Sakura again had grown daily with an immense intensity subjected to pain. Only the touch of her warm skin could could calm the storm that had awaken inside of him.

As the girl held chopsticks to his lips once again he couldn't help but to wander what it would be like if this had been Sakura feeding him, if it had been Sakura beckoning liquids down his throat. Taking care of his every need when he was unable to do it himself. A small blush crossed his elegant features, making the young child blush as well. Suddenly she was ducking her head low and playing coy with him, she must have gotten the wrong ideal.

* * *

Naruto and a few other genin had begun digging a hole for their fallen comrade, they were a mile or two outside of the camping ground to lay her wasted body to rest. The only thing Naruto could think of while he was digging the hole was how her parents would react once they learned that the ninja world had laid claim and taken their baby from them, that they would never get to hear her laugh or see her smile again. Without a warning a single held back tear slipped from his eye leaving a trail of clean skin all the ways to his dirty hands, temporarily scaring Naruto.

It wasn't fair that she had to die such a horrible death, it wasn't fair that she wouldn't grow old, fulfill her dreams or meet that right person and fall in love with him. All this world had taught her in her short lifespan was that certain things were never meant to be fair, the life of a ninja being one of those things. Everyone knew that there was always a possibility of never returning from a mission, no matter how simple the mission may have seemed, but not even that thought could shake the way Naruto was feeling right now..

Suddenly a small trembling body was embracing Naruto from the back, holding onto him like they had known each other forever. "i…its okay to feel sad and c...ry now ri...ght?" its weak voice came in stuttering from the feeling of great loss. Stunned at the confession of the genin, Naruto wiped his hands and turned to face the boy that was embracing him. His head buried even deeper into Naruto's jacket and finally let strained tears cascade to the floor. "y.. yea." His voice cracked.

Suddenly the other two genin fell pray to the mood and embraced Naruto while weeping. "sh…she was my twin sister," a desperate broken voice rang out making Naruto feel even more helpless than he already had. He felt as if despair would settle itself right in the middle of them and keep them feeling this way forever. "everything's going to be alright." His low voice came to make sense of the situation.

Kakashi arrived to the hole with a stone he had dubbed as the grave stone. The sound of sobs drew him closer and eventually made him look in the hole and see Naruto crying with the children, doing his best to hold onto all of them as if they were his own kids. A smile spread across his features, _compassionate as always, right Naruto?_

It took them less than 30 minutes to get back to the camp site where they would all lay to rest for what was left of the night, in the morning they would move out and make there way back to Konoha.

* * *

Sakura gathered her things up from a gigantic pile around her bed.

_why is everything so messy?_

It had been a lifelong struggle of her mother's to keep Sakura's stuff clean when she was younger, all those weeks she was grounded til her room was clean didn't teach her anything.

"where is it?!" she shoved through another pile looking for a match to her small heel shoe.

Over the week she had run into Itachi again and he had asked her out on a picnic with him, insisting on her going since her two friends hadn't returned yet, stating that there wasn't a valid reason why she shouldn't enjoy herself when they were away for so long. It had already been two weeks since they were gone and now she was starting to doubt they would ever come back, but nevertheless, every day she spent her evenings after work waiting at the cold city limits for them to arrive.

They never showed.

Itachi was a means of escape from her never-ending-waiting asylum, he meant well in every aspect of the word well and he was also so very fucking easy to look at. Spending one day with him wouldn't be as bad as it sounded, but she wasn't going anywhere if she couldn't find her other shoe, damn thing wanted her to be lonely obviously.

Suddenly a knock was heard at the front door causing her to freak out faster than Japanese people did when they heard a tsunami was coming. (bad joke, i know) "ITACHI?!" she yelled out of her room hoping like hell he could hear her from the other side, his sweet laugh could be heard from the other side of the door indicating that he had indeed heard her. "do you need me to wait out here?" he's voice came in strong, reminding her of just how attractive and masculine he was.

She scurried across the living room floor like a cockroach till she found her way to the front door, opening it and inviting him in.

Itachi leaned ever-so-sexily in the door frame with his long black pony tail hanging over his right shoulder. He wore a dark purple v-neck t-shirt that had lines at the bottom with a flimsy man's cardigan over the top and a pair of loose fitting skinny jeans that were slightly folded at the bottom. He defiantly wasn't dressed for the cold of winter.

Sakura gulped upon seeing him in such a stance with such loose fitting close that hung so perfectly off of him, she began wonder what he would look like with those ill fitting close off, but quickly traded the thought as she remembered why he was here in the first place. In turn her face had shaded its self several pretty shades of pink. "pl...ease come in." She gestured him in to her homely home.

"here," she walked over to the coach and began moving her paperwork and other miscellaneous items away from it, "is it really ok?" he looked around her plain layout and decided that she was a plain kind of girl, with a messy home. "yea, I just need to find a shoe then we can leave, you can wait here. The remote is forever lost, but if you can find it you can watch tv.. ill be quick. i promise" With that she turned and ran back to her room in search of the mysterious shoe.

Itachi looked around and took note of the place, it wasn't his first time being in there, but she didn't need to know that. She had small plants lined along the windowpane birthing life to this dead area. Down the hall there was a series of pictures lined along the walls of what he assumed was her and her parents and some friends, on her room door there was a sign saying 'no boys allowed'. He chuckled quietly to himself deciding that he defiantly wasn't a boy anymore. As slowly as he could, he began peaking his head into the room and spotted Sakura in a pile of what he assumed to be dirty clothes and papers. She lived in trash heaven.

He crept in silently and rested on her messy bed, startling her. "wow your rooms a mess," his deep voice giggled and teased her ears. Itachi leaned over on his side, propping his head up with a careful hand and staring down at her with such intensity that her nose began to bleed. The blood dripped all down her top and onto her skirt. Sakura stared at him blankly as if she had no ideal as to what just happened, _why did he look so damn good again?_

_"_you know Sakura, i hate to be the barer of bad news and all, but your nose is bleeding." slowly her fingers trailed to her face and tapped the source of blood, sampling some of it on her fingers, "oh yea, i guess i should take care of that." she spoke without blinking and walked silently to the bathroom.

Once in the comfort of her private bathroom she began questioning her sanity, "why the hell is my nose bleeding!?" she yanked toilet paper from the roll and shoved it up her nostril, deciding that her every encounter with Itachi was inappropriate. Just looking at him laying on her bed like that was ridiculous enough, what other kind of sexy move did he have up his sleeve?

Just as the thought left her head he was suddenly leaning up against doorframe to her bathroom, his hair kind of riled up from laying down. "need help?" his voice licked her inner ear, sending chills up her spine.. "n..nope." she turned and gripped the edges of the sink, staring at herself with intense determination in the mirror. "Im sorry I've made such a mess of things, truth is I can't find my shoes, and now I need to change my clothes. I would understand if you just decided to leave." She bloked out instantly while holding her head down low, feeling foolish for having invited him in her home in the first place.

"Okay, I'll just go then." He turned to leave her room and swiftly closed the door behind him.

She slumped on the floor and looked around the bathroom, _way to ruin my chance at a happy day with a total hottie. _She berated and smacked herself about. Deciding that there was no used to crying over spilled milk, she got up and headed back to her room, only for her heart to stop.

"did you really think I was just going to leave because of a few offsets?" Itachi sat shirtless on the edge of her bed and was rolling up his pant legs even farther, "wahh.. what are you doing?" she felt the blood gushing out of her nose again. "Sakura, your bleeding again." His low soothing voice teased. "I KNOW THAT!~." She quickly turned back to the bathroom and slammed the door behind her.

_Why the hell is he shirtless?! Hes really trying to drain me of all my blood?! The damn vampire.  
_

After a minute or so she emerged from her bathroom and ran directly into the closet, gathering different clothes to wear. As fast as she could she began undressing and switching her clothes out, but the sound of her door opening stopped her in her tracks. With her back to the door, she turned to look over her shoulder to regard Itachi, who had propped himself up once again in the door frame.

"you don't have to get dressed in fancy stuff, I've decided that we could just spend the day together cleaning up your apartment, since you keep losing stuff. I'll go clean the kitchen." And with that he closed the door behind him and walked out of the room.

She peeped her head out of the closet to make sure he had indeed left the room this time, once he was gone she slouched against the door frame herself, "nothing is more embarrassing than having a total hottie think your life is a mess, and on top of that feeling the need to clean that shit up." she sighed to herself

"you think im a total hottie?" his voice rang from the door in a questioning tone, with a smirk planted firmly on his ever beautiful features. Sakura stared at him surprised and turned 12 different shades of red, "haven't you heard of knocking!?" she threw a shirt at him and laughed, then suddenly became aware of the fact that she was still only in her bra and panties. "I just wanted to know which kinda cleaning solution you used on your kitchen floor, geez..." he laughed and exited the room.

After two minutes or so had passed, Sakura emerged from the depths her room in black sweats and her hair in a bun.

"okay! If you really want to help you have to wear this! Shirtless is not acceptable!" before her she held out a matching black sweat shirt, except bigger. Itachi looked at it and laughed at the small flower panda that was on the front. "haha, fine."

It took them less than 30 minutes to wipe down every surface, sweep the floors, do the dishes and do some laundry. Now it was time to clean up the bathrooms and Sakura's room would be saved for last.

"here," Itachi handed her the last of the folded laundry. "Thanks, are you sure your really okay with spending all day cleaning my house?" she looked at him with a great questioning sparkling in her beautiful green eyes and accepted the article of clothing from him. "yea, I mean, my place is pretty messy too, so the favor would be greatly appreciated." He smiled at her with his innocent face, suggesting that that's what he had been after the whole time.. "ohhhhh so that's what this is about! Aha-ha! Ive figured you out! You just need your place cleaned as well!" she jabbed him in the chest with her index finger, making him stumble weirdly out of his crouched position and fall flatly on the floor. "haha, oh no! shes figured me out so easily!" he joked back and bumped her shoulder making her drop the clothes, "huh! Now look at what you did!" she shoved the unfolded article in his face while laughing, the sound was surprisingly pleasant to his ears, he didn't like it. "I'm kinda sure that you're the one who dropped it," he teased while snatching the shirt from her and tossing it aside. "Sakura, just help me clean up my place too, it's a mess. And I hate cleaning it myself." He furrowed his brows and pouted like a child who wasn't going to get his way, the very sight of him lulled a giggle or two out of her.

Itachi furrowed his brows even deeper "what!? It's the truth! I haven't seen the floor in my room for months now, and each time I clean it up it never stays clean! There's probably rats hiding in there as well." "haha I feel the same way, how about we eat some lunch here really quick since the kitchen is clean and then head over to your place?" she stood up with what was left of the folded clothes in hand.

"no wait?! Not today, I have things in need to get rid of first, your place was at least semi decent! I have trash everywhere… next week!" he stood up with a faint blush and sweat on his face and followed her to the kitchen, "if you insist, but let's still have lunch okay?" "yea, sounds good."

Another hour or so passed by with them laughing and chatting over things that made sense to no one other than themselves. At that very moment Sakura felt as if she had known Itachi the whole time she had been living in her rundown apartment complex. They joked about both of their messy tendencies and after a while decided it was time to clean up Sakura's room.

"beware, I think something is probably dead in there," she stood in the doorway casting a careful eye down upon her messy room before letting him in. The majority of the mess on the floor was dirty clothes, make-up and scraps of small trash that had been there for a while. "I hope not." He said while grabbing a trash bag and emerging himself into the mess she called her room. "dirty close go that way, shoes in the closet, make up on the counter, paperwork can go on the bed, ummmm… yea everything else is probably trash."

"is that so?" Itachi walked over to a pile of papers onto of clothes, he began picking them all up and throwing them on the bed and putting the laundry in the basket by where she had pointed. He looked down at the delicate pieces of clothing beneath her work uniforms. "I found your dirty panties," he giggled and shot one at Sakura across the room. She quickly put on a face of confusion and blushed to a ridiculous shade a shameful pink.

"don't touch those!" she barked in embarrassment and peered at him from the other side of the bed. "what these? oh don't be embarrassed, i wear them too" he held up another pair and rocketed them across the room at her, making her laugh in discomfort.

"ITACHI! NOOO!" she yelled as he began shooting all her panties across the room, suddenly she flew over the bed and tackled him from the pile. They both rolled on the floor with her landing on top. "A-HA!" Sakura proclaimed triumphantly as she held his wrist down to the floor and tried to take the panties he was currently holding from him. But he was so much more stronger and ended up shooting the panties at her face, hitting her directly between the eyes.

The face she made at the impact was priceless, he couldn't help but to entertain a laugh as she began snatching her underwear from around him. He bellowed so deeply below her that she began rising and falling with each laugh. The sight of him in pure joy was what did her in, and before she knew it she was suddenly laughing too. The laugh was short lived when she suddenly felt her world flipping upside down. Her body hit the floor with surprising speed, and before she knew it Itachi was the one on top of her. "a-ha yourself." He spoke brilliantly.

Sakura was too busy laughing to realize how intimate the act of him being on top of her really was, she wouldn't be bother with the fact that his friendly member was pressed to her stomach in an indecent manner, and that the sight of the two should have made her nose bleed. It wasnt until he leaned down and kissed her lips that she suddenly became aware of how uncomfortable she was.

Her laughing was muffled by the light touch of his delicate lips to hers, confusing her every sense. "Ita?" her voice came in shaky as he hovered mere inches from her lips. Slowly she began to sit up with him still sitting on her. "hahahaha," he began laughing while her face continued to change different colors,

"sorry, its just that your such a beautiful girl I couldn't help myself, don't hold it against me forever ok?" with that he got off of her and helped her up. "haha, okay" she dusted herself off. "but first…. THIS!" she smacked him in the face with a pair of panties and made a run for it across the room in a real attempt to escape the embarrassment of his kiss. But he caught her all too quickly than she had wished.

* * *

After 4 hours of playing and cleaning her room Itachi had left, claiming that he had somewhere else to be and that next week they could hang again. All alone now in her clean house she couldn't help but to think about the kiss that he had stolen from her, and how smooth he played it off in the end.

His whole body and demeanor mocked her every-being in such a slow and playful manner it was almost humiliating, how in the hell was he so comfortable with her? Her body ached with the need to be touched again now that he had left her to sit alone, but the day was still pretty young, so maybe Ino would want to go somewhere.

In the end of it all Sakura decided that she would just take some work with her and go wait for Naruto and Sasuke at the city limits, she couldn't wait to tell them all about her new friend Itachi and hoped that maybe they would become friends with him too.

It seemed that all the people she had currently been meeting had a unique way of making her world seem round.

* * *

**pheww/ dear god.**

**okay for those of you who aren't fond of the ideal of Sakura and Itachi being together, stick around, i have a purpose for doing what im doing.  
**

**theres actually going to be a plot for this story. -_-  
**

**next chapter the boys come home :3  
**

**review please if you like!  
**


	6. Sweet Homecoming

Sakura gazed into the quickly approaching moon, she watched as its cackling, cracking face rose above the earth and told the sun it was time to say 'goodnight.' She watched as the sun accepted its fate and finally kissed the sky goodbye and said goodnight to each star individually, the day was over.

Sighing loud enough for all of the world to hear, Sakura slowly arose from her currently warm seat off the bench, gathered her things in the slowest manner possible, and began to make her miserable way home.

Five hours had left her since the moon showed its face and taunted her all the ways home. She gazed up knowing that it meant no harm, she knew of all things in which harm was meant, she knew of all things old and wise. With it being such a drowsy Sunday night she supposed that if she didn't get any sleep now, she wouldn't be able to wake up in the morning.

The streets were coming to a dull buzz as shops began to close on the outskirts of the city, the city saying its lame good night's to all the city lights, and kissing its inhabitants goodbye. She then realized that things were always like this and that nothing had ever, or would ever, be any different from the way they were now. Everything that was and will ever be already is and wont change. She felt as if she was recycled energy, slumping back to it's only charging source and reverting back to its original form, her strength-less body felt tired in every aspect of the word tired.

12:30am

Her mind and body ached with the need to be elsewhere, the need for sleep. Suffering from a sleepless night again, she rolled over in bed and gazed outside of her cracked window from her clean room in which spiders didn't reside in the window pane. The moon had rolled over itself and did its best to ignore her since she had ignored it, even the stars refused to converse words with her. In the end things as they were now was alright for her, if they didn't want to shine for her, she didn't want them to shine for her. Feeling fussy and huffy, Sakura gave a great big roll of her petite body until she faced the complete opposite direction. Her eyes averted when she caught glimpse of stuffed animals in the corner of her room, its face didn't make an effort to meet hers as hers did it. It was Usuagi-chan and Usakuro-chan, the bunnies she got from the fair with Naruto and Sasuke.

Naruto and Sasuke.

Naruto.

And,

Sasuke.

Such abstract ideas.

12:31am

She gathered them into her arm and squeezed them both tight.

12:31:01am

She cried herself to sleep.

12:31:02am

They stepped foot in Konoha for the first time in close to a month.

* * *

Sasuke looked out the window as Kakashi and Naruto went about explaining details of their mission to Tsunade, their Hokage. They talked about the dead genin girl who had died instantly upon reaching the mansion, about how Sato Tora got away and burned the house to the ground, and about how Sasuke's arms had suffered from 3rd degree burn and that the skin was wrinkled and pusing everywhere. He felt his muscles twitch at the mention of his arms, apparently they didn't liked being talked about. The pain was minimal compared to what he used to feel in his darker hours.

Tsunade walked over and yanked his shirt sleeves up to reveal horribly wrinkled skin and scorch marks that would otherwise continue to disfigure his beauty, it was all irrelevant, such things didn't matter anymore. After all, those with real common sense know that beauty is only skin deep.

he felt as if those were only fool's words, not that he would ever wear a short sleeved shirt again.

"Uchiha, ill fix this myself." His Hokage spoke with such magic and removed his shirt herself effortlessly, revealing his slender-toned body and charred arms that laughed and cursed everyone and everything. The raven winced as the shirt slid past his arms, the pain was still very evident. Her earlier spoken words felt like a sweetened medicine to his ears, the thought of _not _being disfigured.

12:40am

Sasuke watched as pus and blood oozed from his arms as his Hokage's hands glowed green with her healing ability, the feeling of it was soothing, and it was comforting to watch his skin go back to normal. The wrinkles gave way and subsided as she forcefully made them do so, her abilities to regenerate and restore were unmatched by any other. Burns of this degree were meant to be irreversible, they were meant to remind the body in which housed the burns of the pain it went through. Her abilities came effortlessly and tirelessly

As the mission finally came to an end Sasuke found himself wondering the streets late at night of what he thought was aimlessly wondering, til he found himself at Sakura's apartment door. The door seemed so big in comparison to him, it made him feel as if he had some unknown fluid in his lungs, a cool fluid that burned everything it touched, the feeling was very unwanted. The fluid in his lungs told him to stop breathing, _there wasn't a real point in needing oxygen anyways...right?_

His hand rose in a fist and hovered outside of the doors tough, laughing exterior, he hesitated, and his hesitation left him to doubt.

Doubt in which stopped every ounce of momentum his weak body had built up. If Sakura could see him now, surely she would laugh at him.

Sakura rolled over in bed. Sasuke's hand dropped in a lifeless like motion, his head hung low as his aspirations dropped. His body leaned onto her door, willing it to open, wanting it to swallow him inwards and spit him out in Sakura's bed, the bed in which she was. But no such thing would ever happen, because when all things ever mattered, nothing truly mattered at all.

Quietly he turned on his heels and flashed out of there, feeling stupider than he had in many, many years.

* * *

_She looked desperately down the checkered pattern grey-stone floor, it felt cold against her calloused poor feet, and felt all too familiar to her blind green eyes. All hours on the clock were suddenly very nonexistent again as unfamiliar imagines and memorizes that didn't belong to her flashed before her eyes. Choking her.  
_

_Am I going to die?_

_No, _

_No, she knew such things didn't exist in this realm, such things as death contradicted her very being, therefore didn't exist at all. There was no true concept of life, there was no real meaning to death, flowers here didn't birth or bloom other flowers, no. They bore hatred, they bore all things wrong, all things nonexistent. She was delusional and confused as always.  
_

_He grew impatient perched upon his thrown of crows, presiding over all things red. His body wearily leaned sideways, resting his impatient head on a tightly clenched fist. She wouldn't know of his impatient virtues. _

_The chair felt golden against his naked clothed back. Inwards along the floor, a checkered pattern begin to stretch from the door to his realm-less thrown and backwards again. He wasn't amused in the slightest, it was all too evident in his expressionless expression. _

_He wasn't satisfied until one of the two large doors cracked open and in came what he had been waiting for this whole time. She was ragged and poor looking, her body had cuts and bruises on them, all of which he knew by heart. She wouldn't truly live on in his space, she couldn't breathe after all. And those who couldn't breathe in the presence of eternity itself couldn't go on to breathe anywhere else. _

_She stared at him with apple green eyes, lowered so all her facial features were graced with shadows. Her hand come up in a jagged manner and she pointed a sharp tipped finger in his direction. _

'_it was you!' her voice began quietly._

_He wasn't amused_

'_you who changed everything!' _

_He cared not._

_Her broken feet brought her forward towards him, and as she advanced he arose from his chair in nothing but his skin to meet her with all that he was. Just as he had before. She knew things would forever be like this, because all while everything had changed around her, nothing had truly changed at all. Time only repeated itself in the presence of him, the Lord of the Crows. She wasn't strong enough to make sense out of things that couldn't be explained, because in the end nothing could be explained at all. _

_He came towards her as she stopped, his motions were like liquids filling her mouth and nostrils, going into her stomach but only filling her lungs. Everything was motionless while fluidly moving._

_His red eyes came to a low stop on her body while his smirk glinted a familiar gleam in the dark, temporarily blinding her. He housed the entire body of evil its self, the entirety of it all was sickening. She felt pregnant from pain._

_Slowly his mouth opened and took her sharp finger into his mouth, he grabbed her elbow (bending it) and brought her close to his naked body. Her finger warm in his mouth._

_Slowly he chewed the sides of her finger, licking the blood he knew all too well off of it. Cleaning it with his tongue. She flinched and gasped at his chosen actions, her mind was uncleaned by him.  
_

_Surely enough he pulled her finger from his mouth and kissed all the ways up her arm until he found his way to her neck and face.  
_

_Another gasp escaped her when he latched himself onto her lips and bit down hard, his eyes closed as if it was the most normal way to kiss. She knew otherwise, but squirming beneath him seemed to do her no good, he relented only when blood began to stream from her lips telling him that she was still truly only human._

_Her body didn't faint or frail at the feeling of blood loss, no. She had grown accustomed to crows of this kingdom, such as him. But in her mind she still preferred ravens better. His tongue traced blood stains around the corners of her mouth and she whimpered silently to herself, knowing that her cries only further annoyed him. He kissed everywhere all at once, all at the same time. Her body nearly shattered at his incompetent touch.  
_

'_why did you?' her voice cracked from lack of oxygen. His motions didn't stop, instead his greedy fingers found its way to her breast and gave them a nice squeeze.  
_

'_why?' he sarcastically ventured while molesting her, 'I think we are forgetting something very important?' his lips were painted red from her blood, she gasped and grabbed onto his naked arms. _

'_you..' she yelled silently and pushed off of him, untying her robe, it dropped to the floor in a loud hush. _

'_YOU DID THIS TO ME!' she yelled while revealing her naked body to him, showing him all the scares he had known himself. It was magnificent to say in the very least. 'YOU DID THIS!' her voice came in angry and not more than a millisecond later she died due to lack of oxygen._

_He watched un-amused as her body collapsed to the floor in one heap, her hair brilliantly spanning across the dirty floor. His hands resound in a clapping sensation, and his voice gave birth to the most wicked laugh. Abruptly he stopped and made his way to her side, knowing truly he could never let her die as she did._

_Because at the end of all his cruel stories she was still his queen, and he was still her master and king. A toy such as this one would never ever be able to leave his side. If it did, his endings would never know happiness, and happiness was all he wanted to know.  
_

_His grey fingers moved strands of dirty hairs from her face and peeled open one of her eyes open, revealing those same apple green eyes. His long black hair tickled his naked back._

'_even ravens come home.'_

_Was all he spoke and life was born anew in her again.  
_

* * *

"ITACHI!"

Sakura jumped up and slipped off of her bed, hitting the floor in a loud thud!

'god damnit! Imma kick that girls ass!' she heard the neighbors below yelling about her as they did every time she woke up abruptly. Which was very close to every morning.

She ducked her head down and whispered them a super sly "sorry", knowing full well that they couldn't hear her and that even if they did they wouldn't care too much.

She felt confused beside her nightstand on the cold floor (it seemed as if she was always on the cold floor beside her nightstand.), what the hell kinda dream was that? And why did she feel like Itachi had been beside her the whole time, taunting and teasing her, making that dream real. He had been willing her to dream dreams of him, if that was him at all. Her head spun around faster than the world did on its axis, some things would never be alright, and most things she would never understand, nor would she want to.

She glanced up at her bed where her warm body had been previously laying, the sheets were getting cold quickly from the thought of her being gone, erasing every presence that she was there in the first place. She scratched her neck softly without nails at all, it was as if something had changed from the time she left the city limits to the time she laid down to rest, but what in the world was so different?

because things were never different.

Convinced that things were just as they should be (boring and lifeless), she went to take a shower and get ready for work, her day would start out bad if she didn't.

Sakura saw all the same familiar sights on her way to work. She stopped in the same place as always to get the same cup of coffee from the same barista who always wore his hair and smile in the same way. She would give him the same smile she always wore when she saw him.

She noticed that the city was beginning to construct more on the road and created a havoc mess in traffic, people were honking at their sudden decision to make a detour that would take them longer to get to work. She sighed thinking how 'honking' wouldn't really change anything and that people need to be patient.

The subway entrance seemed brighter than it had on other empty days, it was almost as if something was different… something she couldn't quite place her finger on. It was as if she knew everything there was to know but was ignorant to it all. What was so different?

Then a flash of dark blue and radiant blonde caught her eye, two colors she longed to see more than she longed to breath.

Her eyes trailed after the colors quickly. "wait! Naruto! Sasuke!"

She waved her hand in the air and pushed through the crowd, swearing to the gods that she had seen them. Bright blonde caught her eye again, it had stopped in front of the loading doors and seemed to be waiting there for her. But something was different.

"Naru,…" she pushed through the crowd and surfaced near the blonde and dark blue. "…to?"

Her heart panged at the sudden disappointment of seeing two late high school boys that possessed both blonde and dark blue hair. It felt as if her heart was ready to chisel its way out of her chest and abandon her. She decided that these two kids were punks for tricking her.

The train ride to work was uneventful, as it had been for the past, what seemed like, eternity. Her heart was crying the whole way there, all it wanted was for someone to desperately hear its sad song and hopefully make the pain stop. Not that that was too much to ask for. It was then that she decided she never knew a Sasuke or Naruto, that her mind had made them up to make her ever unchanging world round. After so long of fooling herself, her heart gave up on such miserable dreams. A crushed dream was all they were, and all they would ever be.

She signed in her time sheet at work reluctantly, said 'hi' and 'good morning' to those who passed by automatically, like she was a robot on autopilot.

like her days had been numbered and she was the only one counting.

Her days seemed to be slipping away from her, her body was frail and without purpose again. She was completely cold and unrelated to anything.

"hey forehead," an annoying voice rang while slurping on something indignant.

"what pig?" came an automatic response.

"you haven't called in a while, are you doing okay?" Ino put her empty carton of juice down and looked at Sakura, who sat on the floor with her tray of food resting on her knees, all of the food still intact and untouched. "plus every time you come to work with food you never eat, and you don't get anything from the cafeteria.. are you like….. dying?" her voice came in complete annoyance while her finger probed at the back of Sakura's mushed head. "im not dying!" Sakura snapped and slapped her friends hand away, "and I haven't called because I see you every freaking day at work!"

Ino was taken aback, Sakura was clearly annoyed and all she could do was be in the way, what kinda friend was she anyways?. "geez, just worried about you is all…" she tried to play the innocent guilt trip, Sakura fell for it, as she did every time. "I know, its just…. Ive been…." She was lost for words, then she suddenly turned with her tray in hand quicker than she had moved all morning long.

"don't you remember two boys named Naruto and Sasuke?!" her eyes were wide with some sorts of underlying determination, they had plagued her mind all morning and evening long, convincing her that her heart didn't just make them up.

"who?" Ino leaned back and tried to think.

"you remember right? The boys that came for Tenten and Neji's party?" she looked at Ino then gestured a height. "a blonde spiky boy that made you forget about Shikamaru even though he was right beside you the whole time?" Sakura began to worry, Ino didn't seem to remember. "hmm.. lemme think?" "come on.. think harder, for Christ's sake you grinded on him all night long!" Sakura turned to her fully. "yea, I do that with a lot of people, so no one in particular is standing out in my head. I remember you introducing people to me, but I hardly remember their faces, its been a while." She confessed, it was enough for Sakura though. "so I didn't just make them up?" she spoke more to herself than to Ino.

"look forehead, your starting to worry me, and if all this time you've been gloomy is because of some boys than I have a quick fix for you!" she stood up with a sudden ideal. "all you really need is some good dic…" "INO!" Sakura covered her loud friends mouth, knowing exactly where this conversation was heading.

Ino chuckled against Sakura's hand and licked the back, making her friend retract her hand quickly. "eww pig!" she smacked at Ino! "well, I just think that if you had some other man to make you forget then you would come out of your state of…" Ino gave her a grossed look and gestured to all of her ".. you." "hey!" Sakura put her hands on her hip, "what I think we should do is go to the bar and get drunk off of our asses!" Ino suddenly was beaming, the ideal pleasant to her ears. "actually, the club might be better, that way we can get some hot ass!" she closed her eyes and started dancing on Sakura, making her laugh. Blindly Sakura started to dance with her..

"I really need to hang out back here with you guys more often." Tenten laughed when she caught them.

* * *

"teme! Lets go see sweet little Sakura-chan!" Naruto tugged at Sasuke's uniform shirt, it annoyed him to no end when all Naruto wanted to do was talk about Sakura 'chan' as if she was some jutsu they could just summon up. If it was that fucking easy he was already learned and perfected the technique. "come on.. don't you want to see her? I know I do.. I cant wait to feel that woman's body pressed against mine again.. " Naruto mumbled in a sensual voice. Sasuke punched his shoulder, making him drop the books he was supposed to be putting away."Dumbass, you cant just interrupt her all damn day long, shes working and.." Sasuke gestured around to their ever present life, ".. if you haven't noticed, so are we!" he said while tying his apron around the front. Naruto looked around at the little café, then back to the book store section, "yea but I don't wanna be doing this." He folded his arms and pouted, "Kakashi's lazy ass just needs someone to help him clean up." Naruto said while following Sasuke into the back kitchen area. "no, were doing this so we look semi normal dobe. Don't forget what world we come from." Sasuke seemed angry at life while talking.

Naruto sighed, "yea, but I don't wanna be doing that either," he tilted his head to the side. "in fact, I don't wanna be doing any of this! Or that!" he proclaimed loudly in a 'Naruto' type of manner. "I'm doing a whole lot of shit I just don't wanna be doing!" he yelled and slapped Sasuke's tray out of his hand. "I QUIT!" he yelled to no one in particular and stormed out.

Sasuke just watched him, the dumbass didn't have to smack his tray.

Naruto stormed outside and sat beneath the shade that the shop offered him, in the end the only feelings he had hurt were his own. He felt as if his life had complicated itself since birth and only escalated quickly the older he became. He was left waiting, knocking at a door that would never be opened. Where had the line been drawn between obscene and obscurity? His life was one big complicated mess, that only complicated itself further every time he was summoned to do some ridiculous mission.

Not knowing what it was that he truly even wanted, his hands delicately trailed the lines of the clear glass table top, bringing him back to simpler times, times when his mother's warm embrace was all he truly wanted. He wanted to bury himself in her long red hair like he did as a child, and ride on his father's shoulders to the supermarket and beg for toys he didn't really want. He wanted things to be as they were when he was a child, an innocent, moon-eyed boy with dreams bigger than any universe ever made. But like the state fair that only lasted so long, his dreams left, only they didn't return.

It was hard to sit and think of times when he wasn't alone. Times when he could do as he pleased and not worry about the consequences. He had gotten so angry over nothing at all. He felt angry and confused, like he did growing up without his parents.

"Hey," a familiar voice reached his ears, beckoning for him to come out of his quick state of depression. "Naruto, are you alright?" Kakashi sat in front of him and looked in to his eyes with a genuine concerned expression.

" I didn't want this." He said in a dark voice that never belonged to him. Kakashi's eyes searched his face, not knowing exactly what it was he was supposed to say or do. _Who _could truly ever want the life they had.

Finally deciding that saying something was better than saying nothing, Kakashi sighed and began. "You know, I didn't really want any of this either, It wasn't a choice I would have made willingly, and I know it wasn't a choice you would have made either, Naruto." He averted is gaze from his young pupils face. " But there isnt anytthing you can change about being a ninja, you cant just defect from this life, it wasn't a choice of your to make, you were born into it. As was your father, and his father before him. Same as Sasuke's mom, dad and brother. It's a life you just have to deal with." Kakashi's tone was low and reasonable, in public they weren't supposed to talk about such things as being a 'ninja'. That world was hidden away from everyone else, Sakura included.

"I…" Naruto's hand settled down before him, palms open and facing up, questioning all things true and false. "I want to get away from all of this." His voice came in as a cracked whisper. Kakashi chuckled.

"Me too. And when you find a way out take me with you."

Naruto and Kakashi walked back inside, Kakashi's strong arm around his young pupil's shoulder. Everyone was stunned to see the blonde after his episode, Sasuke just simply followed him with his eyes, knowing full well the way Naruto was feeling, and agreeing the whole way.

But in the end Kakashi was right, he always was. There was nothing one could do to leave the life they had. Their world was going to forever be divided into two pieces, one piece in which no one could know about, the other was were Sakura resided. When he thought about it, it seemed as if a thin glass had been put up between them, keeping her on the normal side, the side where she didn't have to worry about whether or not she was going to make it home. Sasuke, Naruto and Kakashi would be on the other side, the side were their lives weren't really theirs, the side where all their decisions were made for them. He, like Naruto, wanted nothing more than to escape, and be on Sakura's side. The side where she would be able to always smile at him, he would even let her smile at the dobe if it meant freedom.

But such things could never, and would never, change.

He wasn't a little boy anymore, and it was high-time he accepted just that.

After an 8 hour shift in the café and bookstore, Naruto and Sasuke made their way to the train station, Sasuke offered (out of the cold kindness of his warm heart) that Naruto spend the next couple of days in his home, so he didn't have to be alone with nothing but his thoughts. The raven knew all to well what being trapped in your own mind could do to you, even the strongest of ninja could break when things got back around to them, and things always did.

"Imma text Sakura, I really do want to see her." Naruto spoke in a low tone, not sounding at all like himself. Sasuke supposed he understood, it wasn't as if they could just forget about her, like she was never there in the first place, because she was, and she had settled down into them both (at the same time) indefinitely. Sasuke glanced over to Naruto, who was busy working his fingers on his little phone, "well, at least tell her I say 'hi'." He added, Naruto looked up at him and smirked cockily. "nope!" he pointed his nose up and away arrogantly and returned to his texting. Sasuke's eyes went wide for a fracture of a second. "you better do it! Dead last!" he leaned over Naruto's shoulder to watch.. Naruto turned his back to Sasuke's chest as to avoid his glance. "nope…" he spoke quickly. His voice irked Sasuke upon reaching his ears. "gimme that phone you little bastard!" they both began squirming over the phone.

* * *

Sakura felt her phone buzz in her pocket, she had already been home with Ino trying her best to find something the damn blonde butt-zilla deemed sexy. "just who the hell cleaned up your creative mess?" Ino yapped loudly from the domain of Sakura's still currently-clean closet. Itachi was her little secret, she didn't want to loan him to Ino.

Doing her best to free the phone from her over tight pants pockets, Sakura flipped it open and received the message. As she scrolled down a single tear slid from her eyes. Her hand covered her mouth in astonishment. "their here!" she yelled out to Ino, "Naruto and Sasuke!"

Sakura texted them 'where are you!? I will come to you' and waited eagerly for a reply.

'me and the teme are heading to his place, do you remember where it is?' was the short reply she got back.

She had to think, Sasuke lived… umm….. _shit._ It wasn't like her to forget such information, but it had been so long. "Ino! Im leaving! See you tomorrow!" she wiggled out of the tight pants and into loose fitting shorts and slipped on her sandals and ran out the door, down her complex, and to the nearest corner to find a taxi. All the whole while Ino hadn't heard her.

"here!" she said while holding a small tube dress that Sakura wouldn't have worn anyways. "this would look… Sakura?" she said while looking around the empty apartment. "forehead?! She did NOT just ditch me!"

Sakura sat eagerly in the back of the taxi cab, going in the direction that seemed most familiar to her, she didn't remember exactly where they were, but the district was still pretty clear in her mind. Their ever fading faces were suddenly becoming so clear to her again. She couldn't quite place why they mattered so much to her, she didn't even want to think about the reason why, all she knew was that they were home, and that she was going to go to them, no matter how far they were from her.

The very inner of being pulled her to them and a small red-unbreakable string, it willed her to them always, and always kept them to her. She was glad to have met them, and sitting alone for so long without them made her contemplate all things wrong with human bonding.

It was as if suffering internally was okay by certain standards, standards that were currently unavailable and irrelevant anyways.

It took her an hour to get in the right direction, Naruto had texted her Sasuke's address, but after taking so long for her to get there, they opted to just walk a little ways and meet her in a closer destination.

Once they got close Sakura's eyes searched frantically for a radiant blond and a dark blue, her eyes scanned faceless bodies and flew over every one. Traffic was so packed it was hard to see anyone or anything for that matter. It was as if they wanted to keep her from them, "cant we move any faster?" she leaned forward and spoke In a rush to the driver. "is your baby gonna pop out right?" the driver spoke sarcastically back to her, telling her that she was rushing the inevitable. Suddenly two blocks a head of a coliseum appeared blonde and blue miraculously "that's them!" she yelled from the back seat while pointing in their direction, "geez lady, cant you keep it down? Don't you see this traffic. Its gonna take forever to get over there!" he motioned for her to sit back and rest but before he could finish putting his hand down she handed him some money and jumped out of the back seat, leaving her previous doubts behind as she did.

Sakura ran through traffic as if everything had stopped. Currently everything was a shade of beautiful white and silver, the sky dark with flawless understanding and stars that were true to existence. She ran, as fast as her legs would take her. Suddenly Sasuke spotted her and began running in her direction, Naruto catching on as soon as he took off.

She captured him in her memory in that very instance. He was everything she thought he would be, the story of him she had written herself, he lived true to every word. His body was lean, cloaked in dark clothes with hair longer than she remembered, the very sight of him made hear heart pump to the sweet beat of symphony drums. Another second without him and she would cease to breath.

Then they collided in a beautifully array of un-sang lyrics, it was then that she knew he had changed everything, and she would rather burn in hell than go back to the way things were without him.

He gripped onto her back as tight as he could, pulling her into him deeper and deeper. God, he needed his, he needed her. He inhaled her sweet aroma before Naruto suddenly collided into them as well, gripping onto her other side as she brought her hand around to his neck, pulling him to her. She gasped and failed miserably at keeping her tears at bay. They flowed from her face and found their way to them.

"I…"

She went on without letting go, feeling both Naruto and Sasuke constantly kissing at her head, it was then that she realized what she had been without.

"I... welcome home." She smiled into them.

* * *

**hey everyone, this is a super late update. I'm currently contemplating on whether or not I should continue with writing this story.**


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